Somewhere I Belong
by MoonlightDemoness
Summary: A training accident has Naruko in a land where people bend the elements. She once again joins in in a fight that is not hers but as one battle ends, she learns she wasn't the only one to come to this new world. One battle ends, another begins. Rewritten.
1. Arrival

**So sorry about not updating this! Regular updates are really hard to keep up ever since I started high school and I've had a whole bunch of story ideas that won't let me focus unless I write **_**something**_**. I **_**will**_** be finishing every story I post though the updates will be very sporadic. **

"I won't stop!"

"Naruko, use your head for once! Training yourself to the point where you collapse will only hurt you! You rarely even eat anymore! You're going to kill yourself!"

Naruko ignored her pink haired friends advice and continued gathering her chakra for the rasengan. She wanted to join her sage mode chakra, wind chakra, and the Kyuubi's together to make the Rasen-shuriken stronger but it was a long and difficult process. She needed to catch up to Sasuke quickly, before it was too late.

Sakura stared at her friend in anger, worry, and regret. If she had never made her make that stupid promise then she wouldn't be doing this to herself. She had given up on Sasuke a long time ago and wished Naruko would do the same. Watching her start to use the fox's chakra was the last straw. She knew the dangers of it and Naruko did too. Using her medical chakra to protect her hands, she charged forward and grabbed Naruko's hands to stop her.

"That's enough-"

They both suddenly screamed in pain and jumped apart. Sakura saw her hands were slightly burnt from the fox's chakra and the wind chakra had cut her hands. She started to alleviate the pain while looking to Naruko. She panicked on sight but was unable to move to aid her friend.

Naruko was in a more serious problem. The mix of sage mode chakra, wind chakra, demonic chakra, and medical chakra was hurting her. The chakra that was originally in her hands was now spreading across her body much like how the cloak formed. She screamed as covered her whole body and the Kyuubi roared in her mind.

Sakura looked on in horror as the mixed chakra's slowly covered her friends entire body. The multi-colored chakra blended together until it turned so bright she had to cover her eyes. There was an explosion and Sakura was thrown across the field where Naruko had been training and crashed into a tree.

Dazed from the explosion, Sakura shakily got up and looked around for her friend. She started to panic when all she saw was a crater from the explosion. Running into it she looked around frantically. "Naruko? Naruko, where are you?"

Tears formed in her green eyes as she saw no sign of her. She looked down at the center of the crater and saw what looked like a bunch of symbols. She stood there, numb with shock, until she felt Kakashi's chakra signature appear and a large hand was placed on her shoulder. Looking up into the concerned eye of her former sensei, she finally broke and cried into his shoulder.

Kakashi held onto his student as she cried. He rubbed soothing circles in her back as he tried to calm her down. "Sakura, what happened? Where is Naruko?"

Sakura slowly calmed herself down enough to answer. "I o-only wanted t-to stop her from training herself to exhaustion. She was trying to blend sage mode chakra, wind chakra, and the Kyuubi's chakra together into the Rasen-shuriken. I used my medical chakra to grab her hands and stop her but it somehow backfired. I jumped back and tried to heal my hands but the mixed chakra's started to c-cover Naru before it glowed and there was an e-explosion. The only thing I can find are those s-symbols."

She was crying again by the end of her tale and Kakashi could only hold her as he started to take her to Tsunade. _'Naruko, where are you?'_

XXX

"Aang, are we going to get to the western air temple soon?"

"We're almost there guys, just a few more minutes."

Everyone groaned as Appa continued flying. They were all in bad spirits since the failed invasion. They just wanted to get to the air temple and rest.

Appa suddenly groaned and jolted to a stop, causing everyone to grab onto his saddle. Aang quickly steadied Appa so he was still and they looked around to see what had caused the bison to stop. They saw what looked like a small white dot about the size of a fist hovering in the air and it was growing. It continued growing until it started to take the shape of a human. As the shape stopped growing it started glowing brighter and brighter until no one could look at it. There was a loud bang that had everyone covering their ears but that did nothing to block out the agonized, feminine scream.

When the sound and light faded they all looked up. They saw the form of a teenage girl, head thrown back and her mouth open in a soundless scream surrounded by long yellow hair. She hovered in the air for a moment longer before she started falling at a rapid pace.

Aang's eyes widened and he steered Appa into a dive. Everyone grabbed onto the saddle as they raced to the ground in an effort to get below her. Haru reached out and grabbed her arm as they finally got under her and pulled her into the saddle. Aang pulled Appa out of the dive and steered him back up to a safer height.

Toph, fed up with not knowing what was going on, exploded. "Will someone please tell me what just happened?"

No one knew what to say. How could they explain that a girl just appeared in mid-air, unconscious? Teo answered Toph's question before she could get any more frustrated. "A girl just appeared in the air."

Toph blinked. "Yeah, I kind of got the girl and air part from the scream and the fact that we dived down to catch her."

Katara suddenly noticed the girl was injured. "Haru, give her to me. She's hurt!"

As Haru handed her over everyone took the chance to actually _look_ at the girl. She had long yellow hair that went to her waist and tan skin. There were also whisker-like scars on her cheeks. She had full lips and an angular face that, combined with the whiskers, gave her an exotic appeal. Her clothes on the other hand were the weirdest things they had seen. Some kind of red dress that was up around her neck with no sleeves, but both sides of the legs were slits that started around mid thigh, like Katara's water tribe outfit. There were designs of some kind of golden flower on the lower half (Chineses style dress). She was wearing black shorts under the dress that were visible from the slits in the sides and a pouch was strapped onto her left leg. Tied around her waist was a black headband with a strange leaf on it and a necklace with a green crystal was around her neck. She was also wearing knee high boots and elbow length finger-less gloves, both black.

Katara bended some water on her hands and put them on the visible part of the girls arms. They were covered with burns and gashes. The girls face suddenly crumpled with pain as she screamed and started to thrash around as soon as Katara touched the wounds. She jerked her hands back and stared in shock.

"Katara! What did you do?" Sokka yelled as he reached out to still the girl.

Katara glared at her brother. "I barely touched her! How could I have done anything?"

The Duke was staring at the girls arms whike everyone else got distracted by the siblings. "Uh, guys?"

"You're the only one who touched her. Who else could it have been?"

"Guys?"

"_I'm_ the only one who touched her? So did Haru, genius!"

"Guys!"

Everyone turned to the little boy. "_What_!"

The Duke quickly spoke before they got too angry. "Look at her arms!"

They looked at the girls arms and expected to see the injuries but instead saw each wound slowly, one by one, knitting itself together until there was only pink skin left behind. They stared in fascination as the largest wound closed itself. A groan had them all looking at the girls face. She was turning her head and her eyes slowly opened. They were all looking into the bluest eyes the had ever seen. Not Katara's and Sokka's ice blue but the deep, rich blue of the ocean or sky. They were hazed and couldn't seem to focus on anything.

"W-Where am I?"

The girl soon passed out before anyone could answer her.

"Will someone tell me what shocked you all silent, please? This is really frustrating you know."

"The girl's wounds just healed themselves in a few seconds without Katara even touching her, Toph." Aang said as he steered Appa to the ground and turned to everyone. "Appa's getting tired so we need to walk the rest of the way. Katara you can stay up here with her and make sure she's okay."

Toph, The Duke, Haru, and Sokka climbed out of the saddle, the latter helping Teo. Katara took some bandages out of a bag and started to wrap up the girls arms in case there was still some damage but couldn't think of much else to do.

She noticed the pouch strapped to the girls thigh again and took it off. Bitting her lip, she nervously looked at the girl. It would be an invasion of privacy but there might be something about who this girl is or where she came from. Making a decision, she unclasped the bag and opened it. Her brows furrowed as she rummaged through the contents. There were lots of strange knives but most of th eroom in the pouch was taken up by four scrolls. Bypassing the weapons, she pulled out the first scroll and opened it. It looked like a map, but it was all wrong. There were no four nations, but rather tons of other ones. The land was shaped all wrong, too. Looking at one of the larger nations she saw the same symbol that was on the girls headband on it. Looking around the country she saw it was called the Land of Fire.

"Guys there is a map in her bag and it shows she is from some place called the Land of Fire but I don't think she's Fire nation."

Sokka jumped up into the saddle and pulled his sister away from the girl. "Not Fire nation? You just said her home is called the Land of Fire! It's too much of a coincidence! It could be some slang term for Fire nation or something."

Katara glared back and held the map in front of her brothers face. "Does this even _look_ like our map, Sokka?" Throwing the map at him she turned to Aang. "Aang, do you know if there are other worlds or something besides the Spirit World? That map doesn't show our world."

Aang scratched his cheek as he thought about the possibility. "...There might be, but I would have to ask some of the spirits to be sure. But Katara, do you really think she could be from another world?"

"Twinkletoes, use your head. She appeared in the _sky_."

"Plus I don't know of anyone in the four nations with _yellow_ hair." Teo added.

"Woah, wait. Your telling me she has _yellow _hair?_ Seriously?"_

"Yeah, Toph. Her hair is really yellow. Hey guys, lets talk about this later. We're here." Aang said with a smile on his face.

They looked around but all they saw was a ravine.

"Um, Aang? There's nothing here." Sokka said.

Toph stepped forward and her eyes widened. "Yes, there is. It's amazing!"

They all climbed back on Appa, Sokka still looking suspiciously at the girl. They flew down into the ravine and gaped at the upside down air temple. They landed near a fountain in a square and started unpacking. When they had a bed set up for the girl, they gently took her out of the saddle and placed her down. Teo, The Duke, and Haru left to go exploring while they rest sat at the fountain.

"Aang, what are we going to do now? You need a fire bending teacher for sure now."

Aang turned away, not wanting to have the conversation, and saw the girls eyes slowly opening. Glad for a change in topic, he jumped up. "She's waking up!"

Sokka and Katara glared at Aang, but turned to the girl. Startling blue eyes once again looked at them, brows furrowed in confusion. "Who are you?"

They just stared at her as she spoke, no one able to find their voice as the name of her homeland flashed in their minds. Her eyes were still hazed but as they cleared up she suddenly shot up and disappeared. Sokka yelled and Katara, Toph, and Aang snapped around. The girl was behind him Sokka, pinning one of his arms behind him, the other holding a weird knife to his throat. Her eyes were watching them all with suspicion and anger. "Where am I and who are you people? Where is Sakura?" She growled.

They were all too stunned and scared to answer. They had _never_ seen _anyone_ move that fast. Toph didn't even fell her. Aang knew he needed to make sure Sokka was safe and took a small step forward, raising his hands to show he meant no harm. "My name is Aang. That's Katara and Toph and you have Sokka. You kinda fell out of the sky after an explosion and we caught you as you fell. As for the last question, we have no idea who you are talking about. You were alone when you came. Now can you let our friend go and answer some of our questions?"

It was silent as he finished talking. Sokka was staring with wide eyes at them and was sweating. He felt the edge of the strange blade against his throat ease up and almost sighed with relief when it disappeared completely and the girl backed up. He ran over to his friends and turned around quickly to watch the new girl.

She was standing in some kind of battle formation that looked similar to a type of bending stnace with the knife held in front of her and was watching them all with such intensity that he felt powerless and nervous under her stare. Even after Aang's assurance she didn't seem to trust them.

"Lets just sit down and have a calm and rational discussion. We answer your questions, you answer ours." Katara reasoned.

The girl stared at them for a second before giving a curt nod of her head and stiffly sitting down, loosening her grip on her knife and laying it on her lap. They sat down across from her and Toph decided to break the silence first.

"So, what's your name?"

Blue eyes snapped to her and observed her, taking in the fact that she was blind but somehow able to know her surroundings, before answering. "My name is Uzumaki, Naruko. Or Naruko, Uzumaki. It is customary to introduce your last name first where I come from, but I'm obviously not there anymore." She said with a wry glance to her surroundings.

They waited for her to give more information before realizing she would only answer what their questions asked.

"How old are you?"

"16."

"Where are you from, Naruko?"

"My village is called Konoha, located in the Land of Fire in the Elemental Nations."

"Elemental Nations? Like bending nations?" Sokka asked.

Naru looked to him with furrowed brows. "What's bending?"

.

.

.

.

.

Everyone stared at the girl with wide eyes and open jaws. It did soothe some of their fears that she was fire nation if she didn't know about bending and confirmed Katara's theory of another world, but it was still so bizarre seeing someone who knew nothing of bending. Naruko seemed nervous under their incredulous stares and the blank look that had been on her face vanished, only to be replaced by a nervous one.

"Um, did I say something wrong?"

Aang was the first to snap out of his shock and hastily reassured the girl, waving his hands around. "No, no, you said nothing wrong. We were just surprised you didn't know about bending. It's kind of common here."

Naruko seemed to have relaxed a bit with them as her face softened and she smiled a little. "Okay, but can you tell me what bending is?"

"Um, well certain people are born with the ability to bend one of the four elements – water, earth, fire, and air – to their will, pretty much. I'm a water bender, Aang's an air bender, and Toph is and earth bender. I'd think it'd be easier to give you a demonstration, though."

Katara followed her statement by uncapping her canteen at her hip and bending the water out to float in the air in between them. Smiling softly at the childlike wonder that was visible in her blue eyes, Katara flicked her wrist and the water flashed out around the girl and back into her flask.

"That was water bending," Katara motioned to Aang, "Aang, show her something."

Aang smiled and nodded before jumping up and forming his air scouter. He watched Naru's eyes widen in wonder and smiled as he let the scouter disappear. "That's an example of air bending. Toph, you're up."

Toph smirked. "Just letting you know that yes, I am blind, but I can use earth bending to see by feeling the vibrations in the ground. Oh! I can also bend metal."

With that, Toph punched the ground. Naru jolted in surprise as a portion of the rock beside them rose from the ground. No longer able to hold it back Naru burst.

"That is so _awesome_! Do you not have a fire bender though? I mean, you have the other's so why not fire?" Naruko said as she cocked her head. She had relaxed around them now, no longer wary of any enemy attacks at the sight of abilities not native to her home.

Aang's, Toph's, Katara's, and Sokka's smiles dimmed as they thought about it. Sokka answered in a depressed tone. "We have been at war with the Fire Nation for a hundred years. They wanted to control everything so the Fire Lord at the time used the power of a comet to wipe out all the air benders. Aang was the only survivor. He's the Avatar – someone who can bend all the elements – that's why the air benders were attacked, to make sure there was no Avatar to stop them. Katara and I found Aang a few months ago frozen in an iceberg with Appa, the bison. He had been frozen for a hundred years and knew nothing of the war. He needs to learn all the elements before the comet returns and the current Fire Lord, Ozai uses it to destroy something else."

Everyone was silent as they thought of their predicament. Naruko looked around sympathetically at their sad faces before trying to distract them. "Okay, I'm sorry for your loss, Aang. I know how you feel but is there anything you want to know about me? Like what I can do?"

Aang recognized the change of subject and went along with it. "Yeah, you called your home the Elemental Countries, what's with that?"

"Where I'm from there are ninja villages and each village is in a different country. I'm from the Leaf village in Fire Country but there are other main countries like wind, rock, lightning, and water. There are also minor ones like rice, sound, and iron. The ninja in each country tend to use jutsu involving the element of their country but ninja can have more than one elemental chakra."

"Wait, are you saying you're a ninja? And what's jutsu and chakra?" Sokka asked.

"Yes, I am a ninja and jutsu are the name of some of the techniques we can use and chakra is like our energy source and powers our abilities. There area elements to our chakra, too. We have wind, fire, lightning, earth, and water natures to our chakra. I'm a wind nature and a fire one. Some people can combine two elements and make a secondary one like wood or ice but it's really hard to do."

Everyone looked shocked at the knowledge that people could at least manipulate more than one element and even combine them.

"What kind of abilities do you have?" Toph asked eagerly.

"Well I can walk on water, trees, walls, and I can make clones of myself-"

"Show us! Please!"

Naruko smiled at Toph's eagerness and could see it mirrored in her companions faces. "Okay, hold on a second."

They watched as she brought her hands together in a cross before saying "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Smoke surrounded them on all sides and when it cleared, their jaws dropped as around twenty replica's of Naruko appeared. Sokka jumped up and poked one of them and jumped back as his hand touched it.

"They're real!" He said in disbelief.

Toph smiled deviously. "How many can you make?"

The original, or the one they assumed to be the original since she was the only one to move, put her hand on her chin. "Um, the largest I've made is a few hundred but I've never actually tested how many I can actually make." Naruko answered, enjoying the shocked look on their faces as she dispelled the clones.

"You're your own personal army!" Sokka said as he fell back down in shock.

Naruko shrugged and stood up to walk to one of the pillars. " I guess. Now I'll show you what else chakra can do." With that, she walked straight to one of the pillars and without breaking stride, went straight up the side and even onto the ceiling above them. Looking down, or is it up? at them, she laughed out loud at their faces. It was just to funny seeing someone who, for once, didn't know what a ninja could do. Stopping the flow of chakra, Naruko flipped and landed back on the ground. "You might want to close your mouths before you catch a fly."

Toph shut her mouth and whooped. "You and I are going to get along great!"

"Thanks, I-" Naruko's eye's suddenly narrowed. She and Toph turned at the same time to face Appa. Naruko's voice went cold. "I know your there. Come out."

Appa suddenly moved to reveal a boy around Naru's age with shaggy black hair a little past his ears, amber colored eyes and a scar on one side of his face, dressed in red and black clothes. Naruko was slightly shocked at the venomous reactions of her new companions as they all got in battle stance with their arms ready to bend at a moments notice.

"What are you doing here, Zuko?"

**Pic of Naruko's outfit is on my deviantart page. Link is below and I drew this!**

**Blackdemonwolf97 . Deviantart . Com / # / d4yjpst (Minus spaces)**


	2. The Western Air Temple

_Naruko's POV_

I was confused by my new companions hostility to this new guy. He looked about my age, had black shaggy hair that went past his ears, and amber eyes. His left eye was scarred by what looked like a burn but I had seen worse. The reason I had changed from my usual tank top and jacket to this dress was partially to hide the scar on my chest from my fight with Sasuke. It was paler than the rest of my skin and no matter how much time I spent in the sun, the area refused to darken.

Anyway, this newcomer, Zuko, was wearing a red short sleeve shirt and red pants tucked into black boots. He was wearing some kind of outer coat on top of his shirt and pants that was a darker red. His eyes cautiously moved over everyone, pausing over me. I saw the confusion flash through his eyes before he smiled nervously and held a hand in the air.

"Hello, Zuko here." Zuko ignored the others hostile movements and continued speaking. "Hey, I heard you guys flying around down there, so I just thought I'd wait for you here."

There was a small silence before the bison, Appa, stepped up to Zuko, roared and then licked him from toe to head. I turned to look at the others and saw Aang relaxing his stance in shock. I turned my eyes back to Zuko, watching his posture and eyes for any hints of lies. He was wiping drool off his face and my lips were twitching as I tried not to laugh.

"I know you must be surprised to see me here."

Sokka took a small step forward. "Not really, since you followed us all over the world." Hm. He must have been tracking them. That was impressive since they must have traveled by air the majority of their trip. It did explain their hostility, if he was hunting them, and by the color of his clothing compared to the others, I'd say he was a fire bender.

Zuko glanced to the side. "Right... Well, uh... Anyway," Zuko closed his eyes and straightened his posture before looking right at them. "What I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed and I, uh, I'm good now. And, well, I think I should join your group. Oh, and I can teach fire bending... to you." I saw the honesty in his eyes and the regret and knew he was telling the truth. "See, I, uh..."

Toph interrupted. "You want to what now?"

Katara was more venomous in her reply. "You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?"

"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang."

"I've done some good things." Zuko tried to defend himself. "I mean, I could've stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That's something."

Before anyone could say something I spoke up. "I believe him." Everyone turned to face me with shocked faces. "Look, I know we just met a few minutes ago and my opinion probably doesn't matter, but you all are letting you're hatred and bitterness cloud your judgment. You need a fire bending teacher, can't figure out anyone who can do it, and he walks right up to us. Offering it! You don't have to trust him. Trust is not something given right away. It is earned through actions. Did any of you trust each other completely when you first met? And it is possible for people to change by the way."

Silence rang after my rant. I could see Zuko looking back and forth between me and the others, hoping to see any sway in their opinions. When it seemed like no one would say anything, Zuko spoke again.

"I can understand why you don't trust me and I know I've made some mistakes in the past." Unfortunately, his words seemed to bring forth a rush of bad memories for he others. I knew they had probably disregarded most of what I said when Sokka spoke.

"Like when you attacked our village?"

"Or when you stole my mother's necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?" Katara spat. She definitely would be the hardest to sway.

Zuko tangled his fingers in his bangs."Look, I admit I've done some awful things. I was wrong to try to capture you, and I'm sorry that I attacked the water tribe. And I never should've sent that fire nation assassin after you. I'm going to try and stop him."

I barely held back from slapping my forehead. There goes any chance he might have had.

Sokka exploded, pointing an accusing hand at Zuko. "Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us?"

Zuko looked up, realizing his mistake. "Well, that's not his name, but..."

Sokka moved from anger to sarcasm. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to insult your friend."

For the first time since he arrived, I saw Zuko get angry. "He's not my friend."

Toph pointed her hand at Zuko and threw it back as she spoke. "That guy locked me and Katara in jail and tried to blow us all up!"

Zuko seemed to deflate. He turned to Aang, the only one who hadn't said anything. "Why aren't you saying anything? You once said you thought we could be friends. You know I have good in me."

Aang was frowning at the ground. He looked over to the others and Sokka shook his head. I grit my teeth. They completely ignored everything I said. "There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. We'll never let you join us." I bit back the retort to 'never say never'. I got sarcastic when I got angry and that would in no way help the situation.

Zuko's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

Katara took a small step forward. "You need to get out of here. Now."

Zuko closed his eyes before his face crumpled in frustration. He took a step forward and raised his arms. "I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore!"

Zuko took a few steps forward and Sokka swung the arm with his boomerang at him. "Either you leave or we attack."

Zuko stopped. "If you won't accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as a prisoner." Zuko knelt on the ground, bowed his head, and held his wrists up. I could tell he was a prideful person and the humility he was showing was amazing.

Katara started bending water at him. "No, we won't!" She directed the water to slam into him. Zuko flew onto his back, soaked. "Get out of here and don't come back. And if we ever see you again... Well, we'd better not see you again."

While they were all distracted, I slipped away. I hoped Toph was too distracted to notice or that she wouldn't say anything. Zuko got up and walked away, the others glaring at his back. I noticed Aang look down at the ground with a confused look on his face and knew Zuko might still have a slim chance. They were greatly outnumbered in this war they were in, and Zuko was just the asset they needed.

I followed Zuko out of the ravine and into the woods about fifteen minutes from the edge. The sun was just beginning to set by the time Zuko arrived at his make-shift camp. It was more like a tarp tied up between some trees. I watched him for a while, trying to decide when I should show myself from my position in the trees.

Zuko threw his hands into his hair and groaned. "I can't believe how stupid I am! I mean, what was I thinking? Telling them I sent an assassin after them? Why didn't I just say Azula did that? They would have believed that. Stupid!"

I had to shift my head to see what he was looking at on the log beside him and blinked at the sight of a weird frog... thing. It looked like a mix between a badger and a frog. The frog just croaked and Zuko groaned again before falling to his knees.

I decided now was as good a time as any and cleared my throat loudly. At the sound, Zuko stood up and shifted into a fighting stance. When I jumped down from the tree and he saw it was me, he relaxed his arms but didn't drop his guard. The shock at my stealth and the jump was plain on his face.

"Zuko, right? You know talking to yourself is a sign of insanity?"

Zuko glared a little. "What's your name?"

"Naruko Uzumaki."

"What are you doing here? They already refused to let me join their group as anything."

I glared behind me in their direction. "Yeah and frankly, it pissed me off that they ignored what both of us said. Anyways, I came here to talk. They are being stupid and they do need you. I'm here to try and help."

Zuko finally stood up straight. "I appreciate what you did back there, in any case. What did you mean, though, when you said you had only known them for a few minutes?"

I gestured the the small fire pit. "Can we sit down? It's kind of a very confusing story." Zuko nodded and both of us sat down on opposite sides of the empty fire pit. Zuko flicked his wrist and a small spark shot to life on the branches and soon a small fire was going, lighting up the darkening camp site. I stared at Zuko's hands in fascination before realizing he was staring at me. I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry, it's just fascinating seeing your abilities."

Zuko frowned. "What do yo mean?"

"Aang and Katara's theory is that I come from another world. I'm inclined to believe them since nothing here is like it is where I come from. While people where I come from can control elements to a certain extent, no one can do what you guys do here. Plus people can learn more than one element."

Zuko looked interested by what I was saying. "So there are multiple avatars?"

I waved my hand in dismissal. "No, we don't have anything like that. My world is a ninja world. This symbol around my waist? This is the symbol for my village. It's called Konoha and it's a ninja village. There are lots of other ones, too, but we can only use elements in our techniques if we use hand signs to channel our chakra, our spiritual and physical energy manifested. The hand signs act as a focal point and help us direct our chakra how we want it. But we can use other techniques besides the elemental stuff."

Zuko was staring right at me the entire time I spoke, captivated by what I was saying. "So how did you get here, then?"

"The last thing I remember was training. I was trying to combine certain types of chakra's I have together into one of my most powerful attacks. There is a war going on in my world, too. But my teammate, Sakura, was screaming at me because I was training so hard. She's a medic and she covered her hands in healing chakra because my wind chakra can cut through a lot of things, but when she touched me, I guess the combo of all those different types somehow sent me here. Apparently, I appeared in the middle of the sky, right in front of them as they were flying by."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "You're really lucky."

I grinned. "That's what everyone says whenever I gamble. For some reason, I never lose." Zuko shook his head. "Anyways, can you tell me about your interactions with the others so I can start to understand all of their animosity?"

Zuko's shoulder's slumped and his head dropped into his hands. I guess I had been distracting him from that. I let him gather his thoughts and he sighed before straightening back up.

"I got this scar from my father, when I refused to fight him. He banished me and said I could only return if I captured the avatar. I thought I needed to do that to regain my honor and my throne. I found him a few months ago in the south pole at Katara's and Sokka's village. I attacked and Aang agreed to come with me if I spared the village. He did and he ended up escaping when Katara and Sokka came after him. After that I chased them all over the world. I would fight them, kidnap them, and bargain with whoever I could in order to get them.

"In the city Ba Sing Se, Katara and I were imprisoned in some crystal catacombs under the city. She started to trust me but when my sister, Azula, came she convinced me to join her and I betrayed her and my uncle."

Zuko finished speaking what I knew was a very sugar coated story. I was appalled at what his father had done to him and what that had made him do. I could see that he regretted everything he had done, especially concerning his uncle. I sighed. "This is a really big mess."

Zuko gave a cynical laugh. "Tell me something I don't know."

I could see the depression creeping in on him. "Hey," I said softly. When he met my eyes, I continued. "What you've done by doing this, the effort and courage it took to get here... Not many people are strong enough to do that. I don't know how, but I know you will get in the group and I don't know how to get back home, anyways, so I'm going to fight with you until this is over."

I could see Zuko absorbing what I said before he gave a small smile. "You sound like my uncle."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Prince."

Both of us looked shocked at the little nickname, but neither of us commented on it. "It was one."

I looked around, noticing that the sun was just slipping past the horizon and the sky was mostly dark. "I'm going to head back and see what I can do over there."

Zuko looked at the sky and nodded. "Thank you for your help."

"No problem." I said as I stood up and stretched my legs. I felt his eyes on me as I walked away.

When I was at the part of the cliff that was above the air temple I started climbing down. I could feel the exhaustion that I had been hiding all day finally catching up on me. My arms felt like lead and I could barely lift my feet as I walked through some hallways. I had barely gotten any rest before I came here, minus my unconscious session. I opened the first door I came across and saw that it was a bedroom. I saw no signs of it having been taken by the others and collapsed on the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

_Mindscape_

At the sight of the sewer around me, I groaned out loud. Wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, I made my way to the cage. Kyuubi and I had come to a truce but by no means were we friends, more like forced allies. For him to call me, must mean something serious.

Kyuubi was growling and his tails were thrashing behind him when I walked in. His eyes immediately seared into me. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

I was way to tired for this. "Besides get transported to a different world?"

Kyuubi's eyes grew more intense, boring into me. "The Avatar world. A world where spirits roam free and people control the elements. You have managed to arrive in this place at the end of the war with the comet that strengthens the fire benders only days away. You have the worst luck I have ever seen on a human."

I scoffed. "Some say otherwise."

"Well, those some are not sealed inside you and have the job of keeping you alive. That mix of chakra would have killed anyone else, you brat. While you're here, learn about fire bending. Since I'm essentially a chakra beast, I can have an element. My element is fire and what you are having so much trouble on with your technique is blending my chakra into the mix. You don't know fire, so you can't control it. So learn something for once."

I gave a very weak salute. "Aye, aye Captain. Now can I go to sleep now?"

Kyuubi growled but shoved me out of my mind. I was in a deep sleep in seconds.

XXX

When I woke up, it was early in the morning, the sun just now rising over the ravine but not casting enough light to warm the air in this place yet. I left the room I was staying in and wandered around until I found the court

yard where everyone was the other day. It took ten minutes before I saw the courtyard, two buildings away. I saw Katara, Aang, Sokka and three boys I didn't know. One was in a wheel chair, the other was a little kid, maybe twelve, and the other my age. All were wearing green so I assumed they came from the earth nation.

I looked around at the building between me and the others, then back at the hallway I came out of. It didn't take long for me to figure out what I wanted to do. I jumped up to a roof-like part and started jumping over. I was completely silent and arrived at the group in time to hear Katara ask where Toph and I were.

"I'm here." I said as I jumped down from the ceiling. Everyone either screamed or jumped and I smiled. It was nice being able to scare people so easily again. By the fact that the other three boys didn't do anything other than stare at me, I guess one of the others filled them in.

Sokka was looking at the direction I came from and me with an open mouth. "How the...What the...How?"

I tapped the side of my head. "Ninja, remember?"

Sokka just blinked. Katara handed me a bowl of food and I sat down. I glanced at the other boys. "So who are you three?"

The teen spoke up first. "I'm Haru."

Now the kid. "I'm The Duke. Don't forget the 'The'!"

Now the kid in the chair. "I'm Teo."

"Naruko Uzumaki. Nice to meet you. "I said with a nod at all of them. The nodded back.

"So where did you go yesterday?" Katara asked. I saw her glance at me out of the corner of my eye and figures she thought I went after Zuko. True, but she doesn't need to know.

"After that whole mess with Zuko, I was angry, so I took a walk around, got tired, found a room, and went to sleep. When I woke up I got lost trying to find my way back here." It was all true. Just a little omission that I took a walk around to where Zuko is but they didn't need to know that. "What's the deal with Toph?"

Aang sighed. "After Zuko and you left, she got angry at us about how we ignored the offer of a fire bending teacher when he walked right up to us and stormed off."

I had a bad feeling. She could have stormed off and then gone to Zuko to see if she could convince him to come like I did. I really hope she didn't sneak up on him. He almost attacked me, if it weren't for me letting him know I was there.

The other teen spoke up. "Maybe she went to explore the air temple. There are some pretty fun spots to practice earth bending."

Katara looked around, as if Toph would magically appear. "I think we should go look for her."

Sokka sat down. "Oh, let her have fun with her rocks. I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again."

"We can go check for her." The Duke said. The kid kind of reminded me of Konohamaru when I first met him.

Teo wheeled over to Haru. "Yeah, I want to ride that tunnel down to the hall of statues again. It will work a lot better now that I fixed my breaks." The three went off.

The rest of us were sitting calmly, either resting or eating, when there was a crash that came from the wall. I jumped up and ran over when I heard Toph and saw her crawling out of a whole. I jumped forward and caught her as she tumbled out, noticing the burns on her feet. Shit. I turned around to see the others right behind me.

"Toph, what happened?"

Toph wrapped an arm around my neck to support herself as she moved her legs. "My feet got burned."

Katara moved forward to examine her feet. "Oh, no, what happened?"

"I just told you, my feet got burned." I started walking back around the corner to the fountain, the others crowded around us.

I could hear Katara's exasperation. "I meant how."

"Well," Toph began a little hesitantly, "I kind of went to see Zuko last night."

"You what?" Aang exploded.

"Zuko?" Katara gasped.

Sokka made a sound. I think it was supposed to be a mix of disgust and shock. I think.

"I just thought he could be helpful to us." I sat Toph down on the edge of the fountain and moved away as Katara bended some water on her hands. It started glowing and she put her hands on Toph's feet. "And if I talked to him, maybe we could work something out."

"So he attacked you?"

"Well he did, and he didn't." I listened to them attentively. All this observing was helping me learn their thought process. "It was sort of an accident."

"But he did fire bend at you?" Aang pressed.

Toph sighed, knowing she pretty much handed Zuko his coffin for the grave he had apparently dug for himself. "Yes."

Sokka put his hands on his hips. "See, you trusted Zuko and you got burned... Literally."

Katara pulled the water away. "It's going to take a while for your feet to get better. I wish I could have worked on them sooner."

"Me too."

"Wait," I said as I reached int my pouch and pulled out one of my scrolls. "I have some burn medicine."

Sokka stared at the scroll and raised an eyebrow. "You know that's only a scroll, right?"

"You know I'm not of this world, right?" I shot back at him as I rolled it open. It was covered in multiple seals. I found the one that held the medicine and bit my thumb. After smearing my blood over it, there was a small poof of smoke and a fist sized tub of lotion appeared. All of them blinked and I could see the wheels in Sokka's head turning. I handed the jar to Katara. Here, this helps with burns."

Toph reached out and hugged my arm. "Thank you sooo much."

"Zuko's clearly too dangerous to be left alone. We're going to have to go after him."

Aang looked down. "I hate to go looking for a fight but you're right. After what he did to Toph, I don't think we have a choice."

I bit my lip to keep from saying anything. They appeared to just ignore me.

"He's craft, but we'll find a way to capture him."

I was surprised when Toph contributed. "Maybe just invite him back here. He's already offered himself up as a prisoner once."

Sokka paused. "Yeah... Get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner then we'll jump him and really make him our prisoner. He'll never suspect it."

I slapped my forehead. That logic is so... Sokka is the only word I have for it. Katara seemed to follow me as she spoke in a dry voice. "You are a master of surprise, Sokka."

By now, Katara had put the lotion on Toph and it had mostly soaked in the skin. Toph turned around and placed her feet in the water, sighed. Now I know how the rest of you guys feel. Not being able to see with your feet stinks."

I felt the hairs on my neck and arms rise and subtly looked around. I spotted a menacing looking guy on a ledge above us. He had one metal arm and leg and a tattoo of an eye on his forehead. "Guys, don't panic." All of them turned to me. "Don't look but there is a guy with a metal arm and leg on a ledge above us." I saw all of them try their best not to look but they kept their focus on me. "Sokka, Aang, grab Toph."

I was just in time. The guy on the other building released some kind of attack right as they pulled Toph free. What I wasn't expecting was for Zuko to swing at the guy on a vine and spin in mid air to kick the guy as he was releasing the blast. He redirected it so instead of hitting the fountain, it hit the ceiling of the courtyard. The others ran to take cover around the corner but I stayed where I was, analyzing the situation and watching Zuko. I ignored their yells for me to go.

"Stop!" Zuko yelled. I heard the others foot steps stop and knew they were watching. "I don't want you hunting the Avatar anymore." Zuko ran in front of the guy, I'm assuming he is Combustion Man, and held his arms up as he prepared another attack. I made a clone and had it stand beside me. "The mission is off. I'm ordering you to stop."

Combustion Man just grabbed Zuko's head and shoved him aside while releasing the next blast. My clone and I leaped aside and The others made it behind the corner. The attack hit the top of the fountain.

Zuko ran forward with his fist drawn back, fire forming around it. "If you keep attacking, I won't pay you."

Combustion Man didn't even look at Zuko as he grabbed his shirt and stopped him. Zuko was a few inches taller than me but this guys towered over him. Zuko grunted. "All right, I'll pay you double to stop."

I held out my hand and the clone took her que to start forming the Rasengan. Zuko used his arm to break the hold on his shirt and twisted so hid leg kicked Combustion Man, knocking his attack off angle again. He seemed to get angry at the constant interference and turned on Zuko. He sent his attack just as My Rasengan finished forming. Zuko used his fire bending to make a shield and was thrown off the ledge. I panicked, before I saw him grab hold of a vine before he fell. I turned to the others as I saw Aang start to come out.

"Stay there!"

He stopped and frowned at me, noticing the attack in my hand. "But.."

I grinned. "This will be easy."

Aang and the others looked doubtful but at the next attack, I surged forward, disappearing. I saw Combustion Man's eyes take in my disappearance and look around for me but it was too late. I also saw Zuko's eyes widen as he saw me leaping at him from the air with the Rasengan held forward.

Combustion Man tried to move but was too slow as I slammed my Rasengan into his chest. I felt bones and skin give way as he let out a soundless scream and flew off the ledge Zuko had fallen off of, spinning, all the way to the other side of the cliff. He smacked into it and started falling and I knew we wouldn't see him again. I just hope none of the others are against killing.

I went over to the edge and reached an arm over to help Zuko the rest of the way up the vine. He was looking from the man sized imprint on the other side of the cliff, to me. He whistled. "You really weren't kidding about the other world stuff."

"Nope."

I looked at the partially destroyed courtyard and saw the others shocked faces. I looked back to Zuko to see him glancing at them nervously. I held out a hand. "Ready to face the music?"

"No," He sighed. "But I have to."

He took my hand and I took more careful leaps to get us back to the others. To my surprise, Zuko was able to make most of them quite easily on his own, only the more vertical ones he needed my help on. When we landed in the courtyard, the others were standing in a line in front of us. I moved to stand off to the side, not away from Zuko necessarily, but not with the others either.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks, Zuko." Aang said.

Zuko seemed more confident in himself today, walking steadily up to meet them. "Listen, I know I didn't explain myself very well yesterday. I've been through a lot in the past few years, and it's been hard. But I'm realizing that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow my father could return it to me. But I know now that no one can give you your honor. It's something you earn for yourself by choosing to do what's right. All I want now is to play my part in ending this war. And I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world." Aang's features softened a bit. Zuko turned to Toph and bowed, bringing his right fist up below the palm of his other hand. "I'm sorry for what I did to you. It was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild. So as a fire bender, I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally."

Aang's featured changed completely. "I think you are supposed to be my fire bending teacher. When I first tried to learn fire bending, I burned Katara. And after that, I never wanted to fire bend again. But now I know you understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love." Aang did the same bow to Zuko that Zuko just did. "I'd like you to teach me."

Zuko's face showed shock and then happiness as he returned the bow. "Thank you. I'm so happy you've accepted me into your group."

Aang held up a hand. "Not so fast. I still have to ask my friends if it's okay with them. Toph, you're the one Zuko burned. What do you think?"

Toph shrugged. "Go ahead and let him join." She grinned and punched her hand. "It'll give me plenty of time to get back at him for burning my feet."

"Sokka?"

Sokka looked at Zuko before shrugging. "Hey, all I want is to defeat the Fire Lord. If you think this is the way to do it, then I'm all for it."

"Katara?"

I could tell something had Katara especially hateful of Zuko but I hoped she could out it aside. "I'll go along with whatever you think is right."

Aang turned to me and I raised my eyebrow before he got a word out of his mouth. He winced, getting my point. Zuko smiled and stepped forward. "I won't let you down, I promise."

The others just turned away to take care of something, Aang and Sokka taking Toph. I stayed with Zuko. "Don't worry. This is classic newbie awkwardness. At least we have each other to fend it off." I said with a grin. Zuko gave a small smile back. "You should get your stuff from your campsite. Mind if I tag along?"

"No. Thank you for what you did." He said as we started walking. I fell into step beside him. "What was that thing you used on him?"

I absently played with my necklace. "It's called the Rasengan. It's my chakra condensed into a small and rapidly spinning ball. I have a two other versions; one is just bigger, called the Odama-Rasengan and the other is the Rasengan combined with my wind chakra, called Rasen-shurikan. That one is very dangerous. The first time I used it, I wasn't able to throw it and it tore up my arms. My friend said something about the wind acting as millions of microscopic needles severing something with the cells. I wasn't able to follow."

Zuko was looking at me with wide eyes. "That's incredible. You think I could see it sometime?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Depends on how long I'm here. I don't actually have a way back home so it could be awhile."

Zuko was silent for most of the rest of the trip so I was doing most of the talking. When we got back, Sokka was waiting. "I'll show you both some empty rooms that are _not_ on the other side of the air temple," He said with a pointed look in my direction.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I was _lost_. And _tired_."

"Yeah, okay. Now what was that you used on Combustion Man?"

I went through another explanation of my Rasengan but Zuko hardly said a thing. I was showed my room, which was across the hall from Zuko's. I didn't actually have anything except what I had on me so I just laid back down to get some more sleep. The last thing I heard was Katara threatening Zuko.

XXX

Zetsu's mission was to find out what had happened to the Kyuubi jinchuriki. Madara had felt something similar to his space-time warp jutsu being used with the foxes chakra and wanted to know what it was. Luckily, when Zetsu arrived in the crate, no one was there. He emerged from the ground near the center and looked at the multiple, randomly placed symbols and seals. He pulled out a piece of paper and copied them down, ignoring the comments from his other side.

There were a lot of them and the process took a good hour to make sure he got them all right. They couldn't afford to make any mistakes since there was only him, Kisame, the little Uchiha, and Madara. They wanted the Kyuubi, and once Madara deciphered these symbols, they would have her alone and unprotected.


	3. The Firebending Masters

_Naruko's POV_

I woke up the next morning, finally fully rested from my overexertion and my unexpected transportation here. I recalled the last thing I remember before falling asleep. Katara had been threatening to end Zuko's destiny permanently if he did anything to hurt Aang. I frowned. There was definitely something that I was missing there. Her hostility against Zuko is definitely the strongest.

I sighed and sat up, noticing that my clothes needed to be cleaned from the stiffness of them. Id have to ask Katara if she had anything that I could borrow. Clothes was the one thing I didn't seal in my scrolls. I had had them prepared to go into battle. They were mostly filled with weapons and medicine (Though one did contain some instant ramen), but no clothes.

I stepped out of my room and saw Zuko doing the same. I smiled at him, which he returned, and fell into step with him. "Do you remember the way back to the courtyard?"

I saw the amusement in his eyes as he nodded. I punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Don't mock me, Prince. I was exhausted before I came here and I didn't sleep a lot the other night. I have a _right_ to not remember the way."

Zuko rubbed his arm, even though I didn't hit hard enough to really hurt. "Hey, I didn't say anything. You're the one making assumptions."

I shrugged. "So what's your plan today?"

"I'm going to start training Aang. There's not much time until Sozin's comet and he has a lot to learn."

I remembered what the fox told me about fire bending. "Mind if I watch?"

"As long as it's just watching, than I guess. Why?"

"You're techniques here are fascinating. I want to watch it first hand and learn what I can."

Zuko nodded, understanding where I came from. I had told him that my world was at war, too. I grinned as we rounded the last corner and I saw Katara. "I need to talk to Katara. I'll find you later."

I bounded off, back to my normal hyper self before the war had started. I was on a temporary break until I figured out a way home or someone found a way to get here so I was taking the chance to relax. Katara looked up and smiled at me as I came. She was at the giant pot, bending some kind of stew.

"Hey, Katara? Do you have anything I can wear so I can wash my clothes?"

Katara nodded and stood up. "Yeah, but I'll wash it for you. I was going to do some laundry anyways."

I frowned a little as I followed Katara to her room. "Are you sure you don't mind? I mean, you already cook and take care of everyone else. I can wash my own clothes."

Katara smiled. "It's fine. I'm used to doing this kind of stuff."

I crossed my arms. "How about a compromise? I can make a clone and have it wash the clothes, and I make dinner tonight. You can practice your bending or something else."

Katara laughed. "Finally! Someone who can do chores. Thanks. I'll show the clone where we wash clothes and then I'm practicing. You should know Aang's a vegetarian, though. Here's my room."

Katara opened her door. I saw her pack on a chest with some scrolls. "I still have the outfit I used when we were hiding in the fire nation so I'll let you wear that." Katara pulled out a small, red half shirt that would end below my breasts and went over one shoulder and a long red skirt over darker red pants. "I'll wait outside, just call me when you're done."

I nodded and as soon as the door closed, slipped off my boots and gloves. I untied my headband and unhooked my pouch before reaching into the neck of my dress to untie the knots the held the top closed. I let my dress fall to the ground and slid my shorts off last. I held up the skirt and pants and slid them up my legs. I was only slightly taller than Katara but we were the same size so they fit. I slid on the top next, glad that the part that went over the shoulder went over the left one so my scar was covered. It wasn't that I was ashamed of it, I didn't want them to ask questions about how I survived seeing as it's a big star burst scar on both sides of my body only inches away from my heart. It which would eventually lead to the Kyuubi. I don't know how people reacted to demons around here and didn't know a way to bring It up with out seeming suspicious. Plus, in case Madara was the one to get here, they would be slightly safer, as long as I wasn't with them so he wouldn't suspect them.

I called Katara back in and she looked me up and down while I scooped up my clothes, slipping by boots, gloves, headband, and pouch back on. "You look good in red. And it's a good thing we're the same size." She said as she took my clothes from me. I made a clone and Katara handed the clothes off to her.

I stayed with Katara up until the courtyard, where she led my clone in a different direction. I looked around to see Zuko leading Aang away to a place where they could bend. I jogged lightly to catch up and both of them turned to me. Zuko's face changed slightly as he saw me in fire nation clothes but I paid no mind as I caught up with Aang.

"Why are you wearing Katara's clothes?" Aang asked as we continued walking.

"Mine needed to be cleaned. Katara's showing my clone what to do. Oh, and I'm cooking dinner tonight. Aang, she told me you were a vegetarian, but would you eat something that was only flavored to taste like meat? There's no meat actually in this." (Think modern ramen packets)

Both of them looked curious. "I guess. I'll try it anyway."

I clapped my hands as we appeared on an open area of a building. "Great!" I followed Aang and Zuko out to the middle of the clearing. Zuko shot me a look and I cocked my head, confused, before I remembered. "Oh, right. Observing only. Sorry."

I jumped over to one of the broken pillars that was low enough for me to use as a seat. After I had plopped down, Zuko and Aang turned to each other.

"I know you're nervous, but remember, fire bending in and of itself is not something to fear."

Aang sighed. He seemed to have reverted to a grudging acceptance that he had to learn this but he obviously didn't want to. "Ok. Not something to fear."

Zuko stood with his arms crossed. "But if you don't respect it it'll chew you up and spit you out like an angry komodo rhino." A what now? I realized that the animals here were like mixes of two normal animals for me. Did they even have normal dogs or cats here? I also held back a laugh. The way Zuko had said all of that with complete seriousness was hilarious. "Now, show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make."

Aang took a deep breath, straitened up and shoved his right arm forward, palm up. I had to cover my mouth as a small poof of smoke, not even the size of his hand, appeared. Aang looked nervous and disappointed. "Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?"

"Good idea. You might want to take a couple steps back." I sat up straighter, eager to see Zuko fire bend. He took a deep breath and slid smoothly into a stance with his arm flung out. Everyone looked surprised as a small amount of fire, about the size of his arm appeared. I frowned. It kind of reminded me of when I try to make normal clones. But his problem isn't too much chakra. There is something blocking him. Aang did some small claps. "What was that? That was the worst fire bending I've ever seen."

"I thought it was nice." Aang shrugged.

Zuko slid into different stances to try again but each time only a small amount of fire appeared. Zuko groaned and clenched his fists. "Why is this happening?"

Aang rubbed the top of his head. "Maybe it's the altitude."

Zuko turned away and I could see he didn't think so. "Yeah, could be." I felt bad. Zuko looked so confused and sad right now. He had depended on his fire bending his whole life and for something to suddenly block him must be confusing.

Zuko kept trying to fire bend for the next thirty minutes. Aang had come and sat beside me after the first five and we both watched the trial and error repeat. Aang yawned and laid down.

"Just breathe, and..." Zuko tried, and failed, again.

Aang popped his head up before sitting back up. I had the sudden impulse to cover his mouth but I didn't act on it. Aang lifted up a hand. "That one kind of felt hot." I slapped my head. Next time, I'm acting on my impulse.

Zuko snapped his head over, amber eyes blazing as he glared. "Don't patronize me! You know what it's supposed to look like."

"Sorry, Sifu Hotman." I covered my snort with a painful cough that had Aang patting me on the back.

Zuko through up his hands. "And stop calling me that."

All of our heads turned at the sound of foot steps and Sokka appeared eating an apple. "Hey, Jerks." He said as way of a greeting as he sat down. "Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerk bending?"

Zuko swung an arm at him. "Get out of here!" He yelled.

Sokka smiled lazily. "Ok, take it easy. I was just kidding around." Sokka got up and turned around, chuckling to himself as he said, "Jerk bending. Still got it."

When he was out of sight, Zuko groaned and hung his head. I spoke up. "Zuko? Is there any reason that there could be something blocking your fire bending?"

Both of them turned to me. Zuko frowned. "Blocking it?"

I shrugged. "Well, yeah. This kind of reminds me of when I was in the academy in my world. One of the jutsu's we had to learn to graduate was a clone, but just one that was an illusion, not solid. I couldn't do them and still can't. This is what happens." I did the never used, but always remembered hand signs and in a poof of smoke, all of us winced at the black and white blob that appeared. I dispelled it. "My problem was that I had to much chakra and not enough control. That jutsu requires a very small amount, something that's hard for me to do. You wouldn't have that problem, so the only other thing I can think of is somethings holding your bending back. It's there, just incredibly weak."

Zuko looked thoughtful. "It's... a possibility but I have no idea what it could be."

Aang nodded. "I think she's right. I met this guru who was telling me about chakra's and how if something was blocking it, it wouldn't flow smoothly. We just need to figure out what's blocking you."

Zuko's shoulders slumped. "We just have no idea where to start. Great."

I glanced up as I thought of a way to distract him. I remembered his ease at jumping yesterday. "Hey, Zuko. How are you at hand to hand combat?"

He recognized the distraction and I could see he was welcoming of it. "I'm good at it."

I stood up and stretched. "Want to spar?"

Zuko straightened up. "Yes. Aang, you can go. We won't be able to do any fire bending until we can unblock my own."

Aang shook his head. "I want to watch this for a bit."

Zuko and I nodded and both of us bowed to the other before moving into stances. We stood still, both of us staring at the other before Zuko moved first. His hand went for my shoulder and I brought my arm out and over his to hit his arm down and away from me as soon as he touched me. I turned with my arm so my back was to him and I elbowed him in the stomach with my opposite arm before ducking out of his hold and standing still.

Zuko was holding his stomach in shock more than anything as he stared at me and I saw his lips twitch as he accepted the challenge I presented. I smirked. "Don't be afraid to hit me. I can take it."

This time I made the first move, swinging a punch at him. Zuko moved his arm to grab my wrist and direct my arm up above us, pulling me off balance and towards him at the same time. He brought his other arm up as I tumbled forward and I stilled as his forearm pressed against my throat. I leaned back away from his arm to do a back flip, aiming a kick at his face as my wrist slid free. He dodged while I back flipped on my hands.

I went at Zuko again with a punch but he turned his body away from my fist and grabbed the back of my forearm. He pulled me into him and kicked me in the stomach, then he quickly switched legs without letting go of me to kick the back of my leg. I fell to my knees and yanked my arm out of his grip. I twisted on my hands to swing my legs around at his, trying to trip him but he jumped. I quickly leaped up before he could get near me. Zuko swung a punch at me this time but I hooked my arm above his elbow and yanked him forward into my knee. He grunted and I flipped over his shoulder, still holding his arm so his arm was forced into an uncomfortable position over his shoulder. Zuko spun around, twisting his shoulder until he was facing me again. I ducked the punch aimed at my head and used my forearm to stop his knee from hitting my chest. I shoved forward, knocking him off balance as I pushed his leg back and flipped on him so I shoved him to the ground with me straddling his stomach and pinning his arms to the ground. Zuko and I froze, panting for breath as we stared into each others eyes. Zuko suddenly brought his hips up in a flip and I was forced to jump off of him or fall face first into the ground.

We continued like this for over an hour, neither of us getting the upper hand on the other for very long. I wasn't even holding back. Zuko had been smart and had learned other styles of fighting. We were pretty evenly matched if we didn't use anything else. Neither of us noticed Aang leave, wide-eyed at our show of skill, or the others peeking around corners to watch us. We continued sparring until both of us were gasping for breath and could barely move.

We flopped to the ground, sweat covering both of us as we calmed our breathing and hearts. I laid down on the ground beside Zuko, noticing there was still an over an hour until sunset. I glanced up at Zuko.

"That was really fun. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Zuko steadied his breathing and smiled at me. "I didn't want to depend on just my fire bending so I learned how to fight with swords and my uncle helped me covert bending styles into fighting styles. It's harder for a bender to fight their opponent if their opponent is right in their face."

"True." I noticed some canteens over to the side and heaved myself up to get them. I tossed one at Zuko and leaned back against a rock while I drank. "We should keep sparring, maybe show each other some of our styles."

Zuko took a big drink and nodded. "Definitely. I haven't had that much of a challenge in a long time."

Both of us were calmer now and we stood up to head back to the others. "We need to tell the others about your fire bending. Maybe they have an idea."

I could see the reluctance on his face and assumed it came from not wanting to appear weak in front of the others. And the fact that the entire reason he was accepted into the group was because of his fire bending. "Yeah, maybe."

We arrived at the courtyard together and when Zuko paused I squeezed his shoulder before moving to sit by the pot and start cooking. I pulled out a scroll and got at least ten packets of miso ramen out. I made sure the pot of water was boiling before I dumped all of the packets in, leaving the flavoring sauce out. I noticed Zuko walk back out and figured he wasn't ready just yet to tell them.

As I was watching the noodles and stirring, Sokka and the others hounded me with questions about my spar with Zuko.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"Can you teach me?"

"That was amazing back there!"

"Can I watch you spar again?"

I held up a hand as I stirred the ramen more and started adding some of the sauce packets to it. "In order of the questions; That's common knowledge to learn hand-to-hand combat but we call it taijutsu, I'd have to start at the very beginning, Sokka, thank you, and yes, I guess."

By now the food was done and the others were smelling the air. "That smells amazing!" Toph moaned.

"It's called ramen. I love this stuff but this is only the travel types. It just has the flavor and noodles. At my favorite ramen shop back home, they add lots of other stuff like naruto, or fishcakes in your language."

Sokka laughed. "Almost sounds like your name. Naruko, Naruto. Does your name mean anything like fishcake?"

I scowled. I was often called fishcake when I was little by other kids and I never liked the name. "No, Naruko means summer beauty*."

Katara smiled. "It fits what with your hair and eyes."

"Thanks. And this is ready, by the way."

Everyone held up their bowls and Katara bended a serving into them. I saved a bowl for Zuko and everyone else dug into the food, even Aang when he saw there was no meat in it. Almost simultaneously, there were groans of pleasure. Sokka spoke through his mouthful. "Bvis z wamasng!"

I blinked, for once not being able to translate that kind of talk. I looked to Katara for help. "He said, "This is amazing" and he's right. Thank you for helping me today."

I smiled back at Katara and noticed Zuko coming back around the corner. He must be ready to tell them. "Listen, everybody." Everyone went quiet and Sokka swallowed. "I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff."

Toph automatically raised her hands. "Don't look at me!" I raised my eyebrows. "I didn't touch your stuff."

"I'm talking about my fire bending. It's gone."

Everyone was silent except for Katara, who started laughing. I glared at her. "I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, how it would have been nice for us if you'd lost your fire bending a long time ago?"

"Well, it's not lost. It's just weaker for some reason." I nodded at Zuko when he looked to me. "Naruko thinks something is blocking it."

Katara scowled at Zuko as she reached for her bowl of ramen. "Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are."

"Ouch." Toph said with a raised eyebrow.

Zuko scowled and looked away for a second. "I bet it's because I changed sides." I tried to follow his thought process and could see his point.

"That's ridiculous."

"I don't know." Aang said. "Maybe it isn't. Maybe your fire bending comes from rage and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to."

Sokka pointed at Zuko as he slid up to him. "Soooo, all we need to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough." Sokka started laughing while he poked Zuko with a staff. Zuko just stood there with his arms crossed but I could see his arms shaking. He finally exploded.

"Ok, cut it out! Look," Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. "Even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way."

"Zuko's right." I added. "Using your abilities because of rage is dangerous. The angrier a person gets, the more wild they can get. It's better if he finds a way to fire bend while keeping a clear head."

Toph spoke up. "You're gonna have to learn to draw your fire bending from a different source. I recommend the original source."

I cocked my head, wondering what she meant.

"How's he supposed to do that? By jumping into a volcano?" Sokka said with his almost constant tone of bad humor.

"No." Toph instantly shut down the idea. "Zuko needs to go back to whatever the original source of fire bending is."

Sokka looked thoughtful. "So is it jumping into a volcano?"

"I don't know." Toph sat down her finished bowl and sat up. Everyone's attention was riveted to her. "For earth bending, the original benders were badgermoles. One day, when I was little, I ran away and hid in a cave. That's where I met them. They were blind, just like me, so we understood each other. I was able to learn earth bending, not just as a martial art but as an extension of my senses. For them, the original earth benders, it wasn't just about fighting. It was their way of interacting with the world."

"That's amazing, Toph." I agreed with Aang. "I learned from monks, but the original air benders were the sky bison. Maybe you could give me a lesson sometime, buddy." Aang said in Appa's direction. He got a small roar in response.

I turned back to Zuko as he spoke. "Well, this doesn't help me. The original fire benders were the dragons. And their extinct."

I blinked. Dragons? Cool.

"What do yo mean? Roku had a dragon, and there were plenty of dragons when I was a kid." It took me a second to remember that Aang had been frozen in ice. Roku was probably a past Avatar. I think I remember Aang talking about it with Sokka earlier today.

"Well, they aren't around anymore, okay?"

Aang held his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Ok, ok. Sorry."

"But maybe there's another way." Zuko turned around and started walking out towards the destroyed fountain. "The first people to learn from the dragons were the ancient Sun Warriors."

Aang got up to follow him. "Sun Warriors? Well, I know they weren't around when I was a kid."

"No, They died off thousands of years ago. But, their civilization wasn't too far from where we are now. Maybe we can learn something by poking around the ruins."

"It's like the monks used to tell me. Sometimes the shadows of the past can be felt by the present."

Sokka spoke. "So, what? Maybe you'll just pick up some old Sun Warrior energy just by standing where they stood a thousand years ago?"

"More or less." Zuko said. "Either I find a new way to fire bend, or the Avatar has to find a new teacher."

There was silence before I raised my hand. "Can I go, too? I still want to learn about fire bending."

Aang shrugged after a glance at Zuko. "Sure, I don't see why not."

I nodded, gratefully. "Zuko, I have your food, here. It's a little cold but just put it by the fire for a bit. I want to talk to you."

Everyone watched us warily but when Zuko just sat down beside me and did what little fire bending he could do to heat the bowl, they turned away and started their own conversations. I waited until Zuko had at least tried the ramen before speaking.

"You like it?"

Zuko glanced at me warily as he continued eating. "Yes. What did you want to talk about?"

I shifted so I was facing him directly and put my chin in my hand. "So, dragons were real here?"

"Yeah. What kind of animals do you have back on your world?"

"Normal ones. The ones you have here are like crosses between two different breeds. Badgers and moles are two _different_ animals back home. And bison can't fly, and there are no winged lemurs. I can summon toads that can talk and fight and other people can summon talking animals but nothing like what's here."

Aang snapped his head over. "You can summon what now?"

I blushed. "Toads."

The Duke turned his attention to me, and everyone else soon followed. "Can you show us?"

"I don't know. It might not work here but I'll try." I bit my thumb and flew through the hand seals for the summoning and slammed my hand down. The familiar imprint of seals appeared and there was a small poof of smoke as I summoned Gamakichi in his smaller size. Everyone exclaimed in surprise at the sight of the little toad, especially when he grinned and jumped on my head.

"Naruko-chan! We've been so worried! You know everyone back home is having heart attacks because of you? What happened? Where are you?" Gamakichi said as he finally looked around and saw the faces of shocked teens.

I shrugged and plucked him off my head so I could see his face. "I'm in a different world. Call it the Avatar world. People here can bend the elements in a different style and in a more fluid way than what we can do. And wait, if you all were so paranoid looking for me, why didn't you all find me?"

Gamakichi started struggling to get at my face. "We didn't know where you were! Your signature on the scroll disappeared for a full day. Everyone's been working non-stop to find out where you've gone. All that was left in the crater were a bunch of symbols."

"Is Sakura-chan okay? Last I remembered she tried to grab me."

"She's been crying a lot and blames herself. Kakashi's been hanging at the memorial stone when he's not helping with the seals. Since you're in a different world, reverse summoning might not be possible to get you back. It felt really weird coming here."

I nodded. "Tell her that I'm fine. Gamakichi, theses are my friends. This is Zuko, That's Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Teo, Haru, and The Duke. Guys, this is Gamakichi, son of the boss toad, Gamabunta. Don't let his current size fool you, he's bigger than me."

Everyone nervously said hello. Sokka seemed to come back to himself. "Really? He's such a small thing."

Gamakichi turned redder than normal. "Small? I'll show you small!" Everyone jumped as Gamakichi jumped at Sokka, changing to his normal size in mid-air, and sat on the scared teen. Gamakichi laughed evilly as Sokka screamed and squirmed underneath him.

"Gamakichi, get off him or I will tell Gamatatsu that you ate all of his chocolate." I said calmly.

Gamakichi paled and shrunk back to his original size. "Please, don't!"

I stared at him, letting him sweat while Sokka recovered. "Fine. Tell the others I'm fine, I'll summon you if I need you."

Gamakichi sagged in relief and saluted me before disappearing in a poof of smoke. There was a lasting silence before Zuko spoke. "That had to be the strangest thing I have _ever_ seen in my entire life."

"Ditto."

"Same."

"I was sat on by a giant toad."

I grinned at Sokka. "Gamakichi is nowhere _near_ the size of Gamabunta. I could only summon him if we were up there in the open. He towers over most forests."

Sokka paled. "Please don't. For the sake of my sanity."

I just hummed as I sat up straight. Haru turned to me. "Who's Kakashi?"

"Oh, he's been by sensei since I was twelve. He's a perv, always reading porn in public and never shows up on time, but he's very strong. His motto 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum' is something I live by."

Katara looked curious and disgusted. "What does he look like?"

I tapped my chin. "Um. Silver hair that spikes up and a dark blue eye. He wears his headband over his other one and has a mask covering the rest of his face. Here, this will be easier." I henged into Kakashi. I even did the eye smile to creep them out a bit.

Zuko looked shocked at what I just did before he looked over the henge. The Duke spoke. "He looks so cool! Why does he wear a mask and cover his eye? What's under it?"

I slid up my fake headband and showed them the copy I made of Kakashi's sharingan. "He was injured in battle when he was young and his teammate who died gave him his eye. This technique is called the sharingan. It can predict and copy movement and techniques. This is only an illusion so it's not the real thing. He covers it up because he doesn't know how to turn it off and it drains his chakra. And I've tried for years but I haven't gotten his mask off once. When I tried with my teammates, he wore a mask under his mask or changed his face to look really weird."

I changed back and settled back against the wall. Momo jumped from Katara's shoulders and onto my lap, sniffing me curiously as if in search of where I had hidden Gamakichi. I scratched behind the lemurs giant ears and he purred before settling down in my lap. Everyone had started talking amongst themselves about Kakashi and Gamakichi and I turned to Zuko.

"As I was saying before all of that, can you tell me what the dragons looked like?"

Zuko stared at me for a second before remembering we had been talking about dragons before talk of Gamakichi. "Oh, yeah. They were beautiful creatures from the pictures I saw. They were really long and covered in scales. They had four short legs and really large wings. Avatar Roku's animal guide was a dragon like Appa is Aang's. You'll probably see picture tomorrow."

I sighed. "They sound awesome." I yawned and picked up Momo, cradling him in my arms. "I'm going to sleep, see you in the morning."

They all said goodnight, some of them heading off to sleep themselves. In my room, I saw my dress, clean and dry, laying on my bed, as well as an extra outfit similar to the one Katara let me borrow today. I saw a note from her on top of my dress as I laid Momo down.

_Thanks again for the help today. I'm giving you my other fire nation outfit. I don't really wear it anyway and it would look better on you._

_ Katara_

I folded the clothes on top of the dresser and laid down on my bed. Momo waited until I was comfortable before curling up on my stomach.

XXX

I was practically out of the saddle the next morning as Aang, Zuko and I made our way to the Sun Warrior civilization on Appa. It was amazing ridding him. I noticed Aang smiling at me a lot and Zuko watched me a little, too.

I stuck my tongue out at them. "I've never really flown on an animal before, give me a break. I'm awake this time and I'm going to take advantage of it."

Zuko just had his shin in his hand and his normal frown on his face. "We've been riding for hours. I don't know why, but I thought this thing would be a lot faster."

I kicked him. "Appa is not a thing."

Appa groaned. "Appa's right, Zuko. In our group, typically, we start out our missions with a more upbeat attitude."

Zuko rubbed his leg and laid back against the edge of the saddle, groaning. "I can't believe this."

"Well believe it." I froze as soon as those words left my mouth. Oh, my god, not again!

"You'll get the hang of it." Aang said cheerily.

I suddenly lunged at Zuko and whacked him on the head. He grabbed my wrists as I went to hit him again. "Ow! What was that for?"

"When I was little I always said believe it after practically everything! I broke myself of the habit three years ago and haven't said it again since just now, and it's..you're..fault!" I tried to attack him again but he twisted his hold on my wrists until they were trapped behind me.

"That's not my fault! I didn't make you say it!" He said as he grunted while trying to keep me restrained.

Aang turned around and blasted us both with some air. Both of us froze in shock before turning to stare at him. He was fighting back a grin. "Let's compromise. Naruko, if you say, believe it again, you have permission to hit Zuko one time. Deal?"

"And no saying it just so you can hit me," Zuko added.

"And that." Aang was full on grinning now.

I sighed and nodded. "Fine. But I swear, if you got me back in the habit of saying it again, when I hit you, you'll be _out cold_."

Zuko nodded and slowly released my wrist and moved to the other side of the saddle. I ignored him as I laid down and closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the sun and wind on my face.

XXX

_Zuko's POV_

I watched Naruko warily in case she randomly attacks me again. She seemed to just be relaxing in the sun, but she was innocently leaning over the edge of the saddle before she attacked.

I honestly didn't know what to think of her. She was new to the group like I was but seemed to easily be able to integrate herself in with them like she had been there all along. Sometimes I wondered why she bothered to befriend me at all. Her cheerful, easygoing, and wise personality drew people to her like bees to honey. I wasn't an exception. She wasn't just a sympathetic ear, she was becoming a friend very quickly, and though it wasn't easy for me to admit, I trusted her with my life. What her teacher's motto was, was something I could learn to live by. To have someone willing to die for you, and be willing to do so in return wasn't common at home. Uncle was the only person I could think of who might have been willing to die for me but I've probably ruined any chance of that happening.

But when Naruko had instantly thought of a way to distract me yesterday I was surprised. When I was with Mai she just left me on my own to fume or made the conversation twist to her. Naruko actively sparred with me, providing a great challenge, while also distracting me and helping me focus.

I started studying her features instead of watching her for signs of an attack, using her relaxed state to openly stare at her. I had heard her say her name meant summer beauty yesterday and agreed with Katara. It did fit. In the sun her tanned skin shined and her hair gleamed, seeming to come alive in the sun. She was back in her red dress, and while it was beautiful on her, I liked seeing her in clothes from my nation.

I ripped my eyes from her and glanced back out at the ocean under us. I had no idea where that thought had come from and I tried to fight back the blood I could feel rushing to my face. When I was confident I was no longer blushing I looked back but Naruko had sat up and was talking with Aang. I was surprised that I didn't hear her move.

I looked back out and saw we had arrived at land. I recognized some land marks and told Aang where to go. When Appa moved faster I scowled. I knew he could move faster than what he had been. Thirty minutes later we flew past the first mountain that blocked the civilization from view. I had never been here in person and it was amazing to see this place.

It was all made of stone and crumbling but it was magnificent. There was a giant pyramid in the middle surrounded by what were probably houses and shops. Trees had sprouted randomly around but it didn't take away the feel of the place.

"Woah," All of us said at the same time.

Aang steered Appa to the outskirts of the place and as soon as he landed Naruko and I had jumped off. Aang gave Appa a pat before he followed. We started walking down what was probably a road and I couldn't shake the feeling of deja vu.

"Even though these buildings are ancient, there's something eerily familiar about them. I can tell the Fire Sages' temples are somehow descended from these."

"Okay, we've learned something about architecture. Hopefully we'll learn something about fire bending, too. The past can be a great teacher..."

Naruko reached out to grab Aang but was too late as he triggered a trip wire. As the ground went down to reveal spikes Aang used air bending to stop himself from impaling himself on them. He used the air to flip over the spikes and land on the other side, wobbling as he landed on the very edge and stumbling forward. He turned around, wide-eyed.

"Guys! I think the past is trying to kill me."

Naruko snorted. "Aang if that were true you'd be dead instead of here."

I ignored both of them as I knelt down to look at the rope. "I can't believe it. This booby trap must be centuries old, and it still works."

Naruko knelt down beside me. "This isn't old. This rope is too strong and not as frayed as it should be. We're not the only ones here." She said only for me to hear.

I took a second look and saw what she meant. There wasn't any wear on the rope that should be there from it's time in the elements. "That means someone's moved in. We need to be careful."

"There's probably a lot more. Maybe this means we shouldn't be here."

I backed up and ran forward on the side of the wall, landing smoothly in front of Aang. I couldn't help but smirk."Where's that upbeat attitude you were talking about? Besides, people don't make traps unless they've got something worth protecting."

I felt a brush of air and saw Naruko had mimicked my way of getting past the spikes. She laid a hand on Aang's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll send a clone to walk in front of us to trigger any traps there might be."

That was a good idea and I was once again in awe of her abilities and mind. She did as she said, and Aang relaxed at the fact that they wouldn't be dying. Surprisingly, there was nothing else on the way to the pyramid and Naruko dispelled her clone as we reached the top.

"Look, this seems promising." In front of us was a giant picture built into the stone wall of two dragons breathing fire and trapping a man inside it. It was beautiful and depressing all at once. "Though I'm not sure what this tells us about the original source of fire bending."

"You were right about the pictures of dragons, Zuko." Naruko said.

I studied the picture. "They look pretty angry to me."

"I thought the dragons were friends with the Sun Warriors."

"Well they had a funny way of showing it." I looked down. The sight of a picture of the dragons, the creatures my people hunted for sport...

Aang picked up on my mood. "Zuko, something happened to the dragons in the last hundred years, something you're not telling me."

I didn't turn to look at either of them. "My great grandfather Sozin happened." I didn't say anything more until we had reached a bridge and put the picture behind us. "He started the tradition of hunting dragons for glory. They were the ultimate fire benders and if you could conquer one, your fire bending talents would become legendary and you's earn the honorary title, Dragon." We came up to some statues of a dragon whose head had fallen off and I placed my hand on one eye. "The last great dragon was conquered long before I was born, by my uncle."

Aang's eyes widened. "That's why he's called Dragon of the West, isn't it? But I though your uncle was, I don;e know, good?"

"He had a complicated past. Family tradition, I guess." I closed my eyes before turning and walking off. "Let's just move on."

I heard their footsteps follow me up the stairs until we reached the last section of the pyramid that leveled out. There were giant golden doors but no handle or visible way to open them. Aang rushed forward and tried pulling them open.

"It's locked up."

"Hey, Prince." I turned to look at Naruko. "There's a glowing red dot on the back of your head coming from the pillar behind you."

I looked behind me, seeing the shining gem that was making the glow. All of this seemed familiar somehow. I stepped to the side and saw the the glow landed on one of the slightly raised, round stones on the ground. "Wait. It's a celestial calendar. Just like the Fire Sages have in their temples. I bet that sun stone opens the door but only when sunlight hits it at just the right angle, on the solstice."

"Monkeyfeathers." I felt more than heard Naruko walk up to me. She whispered in my ear.

"Is that Aang's way of cursing?"

I shrugged. Aang continued speaking. "The solstice again. We can't wait here that long."

I reached back and drew one of my swords. "No, we can't, but we might be able to speed time up." I moved the blade until the light on the ground was on it. "Lets see if we can outsmart the sun stone." I shifted my hand until the light was reflecting off my sword and onto the stone.

"Nothing's happening," Aang said.

"Come on," I coaxed. I waited a few more seconds and when the wall started rumbling I smirked victoriously.

I walked up to Where Aang and Naruko stood at the now open doors. Aang spoke up happily. "You know, Zuko, I don't care what everyone else says about you. You're pretty smart."

I smiled before what he said actually registered. My smile dropped off my face and Naruko laughed before pulling me inside after Aang. I started walking on my own and both of us watched Aang squint at a statue before gasping and backing away.

"Relax," I said. "They're just statues." Inside there were eighteen statues in a circle, half of the a mirror of the other side, each depicting a different stance.

"It says this is something called The Dancing Dragon." Aang said.

I looked around at the base of the statues to see if there was anything written. I saw Naruko and Aang moving to mimic the statues out of the corner of my eye. I heard quick footsteps before Aang latched onto my arm and started dragging me. "Zuko, get over here. I want you to dance with me."

I yanked my arm back. "What? Why not ask Naruko?"

"Because she's not a fire bender. Just do it."

I let Aang drag me over to the beginning of the statues. Naruko nodded and I started walking myself but I still groaned when I stood in front of it.

Aang ignored me while Naruko stood in the middle of the design on the floor. "Let's follow the steps of the statues."

I did as Aang instructed, bringing my leg up to imitate the statue. As I brought my foot down to copy the next one, the floor sunk in about and inch. My eyes widened and I glanced back at Naruko who was nodding.

"Don't you see?" Aang continued. I moved onto the next one. "These aren't dance moves. These statues are giving us a lesson. I think this is some kind of Sun Warrior fire bending form."

"This better teach us some really good fire bending."

As Aang and I reached the final statue, Naruko yelped. Both of us looked over to see her jumping away from the ground as the center of the design opened up and a pedestal came up with what looked like a golden egg. Aang raised his arms in the air. "Hooray! Wait, what exactly is that?"

"I think it's an egg. It feels alive." Naruko said as she placed a hand on it. I walked up to the pedestal.

Aang panicked. "Don't touch it!" Naruko pulled her hand away.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Remember what happened out there with those spikes? I'm just very suspicious of giant golden gems sitting on pedestals."

"I ignored Aang and picked up the gem or egg. I could feel what Naruko meant about it being alive. "It feels alive. Naruko's right."

As I went to place the egg back down some kind of green sludge blasted me and the egg up. I smashed into the air vent that was on the ceiling.

"Zuko!"

"Oh, no, it's another trap." Aang moaned.

I opened my eyes and saw Naruko and Aang jumping out of the way as a fountain of this green stuff kept pouring out. I tried to move but this stuff was like glue. "I can't pull free. It's like some kind of glue."

I watched Aang go for his staff and Naruko jump on top of the statue closest to me. The glue was filling the place fast. Aang jumped to the top of a statue and used air bending to try and get me free but it only rolled me over. I felt Naruko jump up behind me and managed to move my head so she could have room. Aang soon followed but both of them got stuck as soon as they touched the glue. The pressure of the glue on our backs had all of us straining our heads as far forward as we could. It finally stopped when only our head were above the goo. I tried not to think of the fact that I could feel the side of Naruko's body pressing against my back.

"It stopped." Aang said.

Naruko sighed. I tried to diffuse the situation. "At least we have air. Maybe if we stay clam, we can figure a way out of this."

It was silent. I honestly couldn't think of anything. None of us could move our bodies, and I was fighting back a blush as I felt Naruko breathing through my back. She sighed.

"I got nothing."

"Same."

"Same."

It was silent again. "You guys ever heard of twenty questions?"

"Yup."

"Yes."

"Who wants to go first? No lying."

"I will." Aang said. "Naruko, when's your birthday?"

"October 10. Zuko...where did you learn swordsmanship?"

"When I was younger I studied with Piandao."

"Hey, we met him." Aang said.

I glanced in his direction. "Really? When?"

"After I woke up when Azula shot me, we went into hiding in the fire nation, actually. I actually grew some hair and used a school headband to hide my arrow. Anyway, Sokka was getting depressed about the fact that he wasn't a bender after Toph, Katara, and I put out a fire from a meteor. He heard about Piandao and he accepted him as his student. He made his sword from the meteor."

"Oh, cool. He doesn't accept a lot of people."

"Your turn Zuko." Naruko said.

"Do you have any younger or older siblings, Naruko?"

She was silent for a bit. She finally spoke up. "No, I'm an orphan. My parents died the day I was born."

"Oh, sorry." I winced. I almost wanted to ask how but I felt too awkward now.

"It's fine. My turn. Aang, how did you live one hundred years?"

"Oh, um when I was told I was the Avatar by the monks, my friends wouldn't really hang out with me anymore. They said I couldn't play games because it would make the team I was playing on have an unfair advantage. Monk Gyatso was like a father to me and was responsible for my air bending training but we had fun a lot, too. One of the elder's came to see my progress but I was playing with him. I spied on a meeting and heard that they were going to send me away. I ran away but Appa and I got caught in a really bad storm- remember the one at sea Zuko?"

I nodded, remembering that storm. I had never known why Aang was in the ice but his story is kind of depressing.

"It was like that. Appa and I fell in the water and I blacked out. I must have used the Avatar State- I'll explain that in a minute. I must have frozen the water around me and Appa into ice. Next thing I knew, Katara and Sokka found me in the South Pole."

"That's...kinda sad. What's the Avatar State?"

"It's pretty much when I'm in a dangerous situation, the spirits of the past Avatars take hold of my body. I can bend all of the elements but I don't really remember what happens."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Naruko pale. What was with that?

"Last question. Zuko, why did your father burn you?"

I winced, but I wouldn't lie. "I was attending my first war meeting and spoke out against a general who wanted to use a whole battalion of soldiers as a diversion in a battle. I didn't want to do that to people who were giving up their lives for us. I was challenged to an Agni Kai and I accepted, think I would fight that general, but it was my father. I refused to fight him so he burned me and banished me."

I felt Naruko shift and knew that was her wordless way of comforting me. Aang spoke. "You are a good man, Zuko. You knew the value of life."

"I think this may be getting a little too personal." Naruko said. We agreed. By now it was dark and we fell into a slightly awkward silence. I heard Naruko breath deeply and felt her body go eerily still against mine.

Aang spoke up, trying to lighten the mood. "You had to pick up the glowing egg, didn't you?"

"At least I made something happen." I snapped. "If it were up to you, we'd never have made it past the courtyard."

Aang used his air bending to help him yell as loud as he could. "HELP!"

"Who are you yelling to?"

"Can you guys shut up? Please?"

Both of us glanced at Naruko. Her eyes were closed and if it wasn't for that fact that I could just feel her breathing and heart, I'd think she was dead with how still she was. As I watched her, red marks started appearing on her eyelids. When she opened her eyes, they were gold, and the pupil was sideways. Her eyes looked like that toad she had summoned earlier.

"What's that?" Aang asked.

"This is called Sage Mode. I absorbed the nature chakra around us. It amplifies my senses and I can sense that there are other people here and that they are headed this way. I can feel their chakra's."

"That's so cool." Aang said. I saw a little bit of his eye appear over Naruko's face. "See, Zuko? I was right to yell."

"They're almost here, just around the corner."

Sure enough I heard a foot stomp the ground and a voice say, "Who is down there?"

The guy came into view. He was kind of fat but he wore Sun Warrior clothing. I assume he's some kind of chief by his headdress and staff. The part of his face under the headdress was painted red and below his eyes there was a white stripe.

The guys was silent, staring at us, but his eyes seemed to widen at the sight of Naruko. Her eyes were still changed in Sage Mode. I spoke to take his attention off of her. "Who are you?"

The Chief growled and signaled behind him. Three other guys came forward and started unscrewing the grate. No one said anything. When they pried our hands off the bars they dumped this stuff on the goo around us. It started melting away and some guys led an anteater over. It cleaned away a majority of the goo, enough for the Sun Warriors to haul us up and march us away. We were sat down in front of the door of the celestial calendar and another anteater was brought in to lick the goo away from us. There were maybe thirty people here.

I was right about the guy being chief. He stood in front of us. "For trying to take our Sun Stone, you must be severely punished."

"We didn't come here to take your Sun Stone," I said. "We came here to find the ancient origin of all fire bending."

One guys stepped forward from the first row. I didn't like the look of him, He reminded me of a rat. "Yeah, right. They are obviously thieves, here to steal Sun Warrior treasures."

Aang spoke up. "Please. I don't normally play this card, but I'm the Avatar." They didn't react in any way and I figured these people were not exactly fans. Aang stood up. "Just hear us out."

I stood up as well, pulling Naruko up with me but making sure she was behind me as well. "My name is Zuko, crown prince of the Fire Nation. Or at least I used to be. I know my people have distorted the ways of fire bending, to be fueled by anger and rage but now I want to learn the true way, the original way. When we came here, I never imagined the Sun Warrior civilization was secretly alive. I am truly humbled to be in your presence." I bowed my head, knowing Aang and Naruko would follow my lead. "Please, teach us."

The chief started at us, hard. "If you wish to learn the ways of the sun you must learn them from the masters Ran and Shao."

"Ran and Shao? There are two of them?"

"When you present yourselves to them, they will examine you. They'll read your hearts, your souls, and your ancestry." The chief stood right in front of me when he said the last part. I couldn't hide my grimace. "If they deem you worthy, they'll teach you. If they don't, you'll be destroyed on the spot."

Aang and I glance at each other, than I looked at Naruko. "Chief, Naruko is not a bender."

"I know what she is. She will be excused from the trial of the masters but she and I do need to speak. Alone. For now, you will rest. The trial begins in the morning."

Naruko froze. I could feel her tense and I followed. How could he know? Naruko is the only one of her world to ever come here. We couldn't say anything, though. We had to comply with them.

We were shown an area where we could rest and as soon as we were left in the building, Naruko rounded on me. "What was that? If you guys don't pass, you'll die! I want to be there the whole way, pass or fail." She growled at me. For the first time I noticed that her canine teeth were slightly bigger and sharper than normal.

I kept my face blank as I sat down and crossed my arms. "You are not a bender. You couldn't learn fire bending anyways. If we fail, you can get away. If you are with us, you die and the war in your world goes on with out you as does this one."

She went silent after that, glaring at me and mouthing something to herself but she didn't say any more. I thought back to what the chief had said. He knew_ what_ she was, I realized. He had said what, not _who_. And by the way Naruko had paled, she knew what he had meant, too. But what did he mean?

I thought back to what I knew and had seen Naruko do. The only thing that really stood out was her insistence to learn only about fire bending. She didn't ask Katara or Toph or Aang to talk to her or show her about their elements. Only fire.

By the time morning came around, only Aang had slept, and even then it was only for about thirty minutes. We were too tense for what could happen. When the chief came to collect us he took us to the very top of the pyramid where there was a fire burning under a pavilion.

"If you're going to see the masters, you must bring them a piece of the eternal flame. This fire is the very first one. It was given to man by the dragons. We have kept it going for thousands of years." I couldn't help but to stare in awe of the fire.

"I don't believe it." I said.

"You will each take a piece of it to the masters to show your commitment to the sacred art of fire bending."

Aang nervously grabbed the back of his neck. "Um, Mister Sun Chief, Sir? Yeah, I'm not a fire bender yet. Couldn't my friend here carry my fire for me?"

"No," the chief said simply. The chief turned back to the fire and bended out a small amount. He separated it into two parts and held them out to us. "This ritual illustrates the essence of Sun Warrior philosophy. You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small." The chief said as he handed Aang his. Aang shied away. He handed mine to me. "Make it too big and you might lose control."

I took mine and turned to Aang, who still had his hands tucked up into his chest. He slowly relaxed his arms and held them out. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little nervous." Aang took the fire and as he pulled it to him he smiled. "It's like a little heartbeat."

"Fire is life, not just destruction." The chief pointed to our left where a trail led up to a mountain that looked like a section in the middle had been cut away. "You will take your fire up there. The cave of the masters is beneath that rock. Your friend and I will meet you up there."

I started walking with a backwards glance at Naruko, who had a mask on to hide her emotions. I could see her hand twitch nervously to her weapons pouch, though. I nodded at Aang and he followed after me.

XXX

_Naruko's POV_

I watched both of them go nervously. I really hated Zuko right now for doing this to me. I would rather be with them, holding fire, than here alone with the Chief.

The Chief started walking a different path but was still in the direction of the mountain. "You said you know what I am. Do you mean the fox?"

The Chief nodded. "I know what you are, child, but you do not need to fear harm from me. The fox in your seal was born here in a way. We have a legend only passed down to the next chief of a fox with nine tails that had wandered to our civilization. It was chased off by a warrior who feared the strange animal with death in it's eyes but he chased it to the eternal flame. Rather than die beaten by the warrior, the fox jumped in the flames. Instead of dying, the flames joined with the foxes spirit and it was turned into a creature so powerful that it towered over the tallest mountain and had ten tails instead of nine. The spirit of the moon saw the danger of the creature and pulled it into it's spirit, sealing it away."

I thought about what he said. I'd have to ask the fox if this was true but it sounds possible. "That must be why the fox said to learn about fire while I was here. I've been trying to control its chakra but I can never get it to follow my will exactly. He said I need to know fire, to use it."

"Than he is right. Those who have tried to use fire with out knowing it or respecting it have been punished." We had reached the top of the mountain by now and I saw the steps that led up to a platform connecting the two mountains and the cave entrances.

I had one more question to ask. "How did you know I had the fox?"

The Chief gestured to his cheeks and my hands came up to trace my whisker marks. "Those marks were scorched onto the ground after the spirit was pulled into the moon. Anyone with a strong spiritual connection and knowledge of the legend will know what those marks mean. The Avatar must have felt something off about your spirit but he does not know the legend. A bit of advice, though. Don't hide what you are. Tell your friends."

I looked away as I hugged my arms. "I may not be the only one to come here. I have some very powerful and very ruthless men after me and I don't want them hurt."

The Chief placed a hand on my shoulder. "Better to be told by you, than someone else. And better they can protect themselves of you lose control."

I bit my lip. "I know, but I... I just can't. Not yet."

The Chief nodded. "It is your choice. I will not tell them."

"Thank you."

I sat down in silence while the chief and other warriors sat or talked. I started meditating, wanting to talk to the fox but wanting to know when the guys arrived. I debated with myself whether or not to delve into my conscious when I heard the Chief speak to me. "They are in sight."

I jumped up and ran to the edge of the stairs to see Aang and Zuko rounding a rock, both still with their flames. I stood by the chief as he walked forward.

"Facing the judgment of the fire bending masters will be very dangerous for you." He turned to Zuko. "Your ancestors are directly responsible for the dragons disappearance." I noticed he said disappearance, not extinction. I glance back at the size of the caves and my eyes widened. It couldn't be... "The masters might not be so happy to see you."

The guy who reminded me of a rat spoke up. "I know I wouldn't be."

"But once they find out I'm the Avatar..." Aang began.

"Have you forgotten that you vanished, allowing the Fire Nation to wreak havoc on the world? The decline of the dragons is your burden too." He said decline. He is not saying the dragons are extinct. Oh, my god.

The Chief slammed his staff on the ground and when he let go it stayed put. He stepped forward and took apiece of each of their flames and passed them to the two beside him. They passed it on. All of the warriors that were standing took a bit of the flame and made it into a circle before passing it on.

I stayed with Aang and Zuko. "We could turn back now." Aang said. We've already learned more about fire than we'd hoped." Aang held up his small flame.

"No," Zuko said firmly. "We're seeing this through to the end. We're going to meet these masters and find out what's so great about them."

Crap. They didn't get the chief's clues.

"What if they judge us and attack us?"

"Well, we're the Fire Prince and the Avatar." Zuko reached to grab his sword. "I think we could take these guys in a fight, whoever they are."

As they started walking to the chief I whispered in Zuko's ear. "Think, Zuko! The chief said the dragons _disappearance_ and _decline_. Look at the size of the caves. _Think!_"

I stopped as we reached the chief. I know Zuko got my point because he looked behind me at the size of the caves, seeing the same marks I saw, and paled. He stayed put though. It was too late to go back.

The chief spread his arms. "Chanters."

The men sitting in front of the drums started banging and chanting a quick rhythm that I could feel resonate in my bones. The Chief stepped to the side and held on to me as Aang and Zuko started up the stairs. Aang stopped part way up and glanced back at me. I managed a weak smile and he continued. They reached the top, Zuko on the left, Aang on the right.

One of the warriors put a horn to his mouth to amplify his voice. "Those who wish to meet the masters Ran and Shao will now present their fire." Aang and Zuko bowed in front of a cave, holding their fire in front of them.

"Sound the call." The chief said. A guys a ways over blew into a giant horn. At the sound, the entrances to the caves started shaking and rocks started crashing. I kept my eyes on Aang, who was shaking like crazy and jumping. He wouldn't last. Sure enough Aang dropped his arms and turned to face Zuko, unknowingly dropping his fire. The only thing that kept me from going up there was the chief's restraining had on my arm.

I strained my ears to hear what they were saying, for once thanking my enhanced senses. "What's happening?"

Aang got no response from Zuko and turned back around, realizing his flame was gone when he brought his hands up. He jerked back around. "Zuko, my fire went out!"

"What do you want me to do?"

Aang tried to grab Zuko's fire. "Give me some of yours."

Zuko pushed him away. "No, just make your own."

"I can't."

"Get some from one of those warriors. Hurry." Zuko said as he tried to keep Aang away from his flame. His voice grew louder. "Stop cheating off me."

"Quit being stingy."

Zuko raised his arm above Aang's reach and Aang moved around to try and grab his arm, moving to his back to shove his shoulder down. Zuko finally lost and Aang shoved his arms away from his flame, making it disperse, too.

Both watched the place where the flame had been before glancing at each other. The caves started shaking fiercely and both of them said, "Uh-oh."

I was right about the dragons. I couldn't help but be in awe at the sight of the long red and blue dragons. The red one came out first and circled the platform Aang and Zuko were standing on, buffeting them with wind. The blue one came out and the wind grew stronger as both circled around them. They were flying in a crossing pattern.

The Sun Warriors started bowing but since the chief let me be I stood up, frozen at the sight of the dragons at the foot of the stairs. The dragons flight pattern changed and I noticed something familiar but I couldn't place it. I couldn't hear Aang and Zuko anymore because of all the wind but I could see them talking to each other. Both of them straightened up and slid into the pose of the first statue of The Dancing Dragon. My eyes widened as I followed their movements.

It was beautiful, seeing them match the dragons move for move with the sunset in the background behind them. As Aang and Zuko did the final pose the dragons stopped, both facing them. Both grabbed onto the sides of the stairs and lowered their heads until they were below the platform. I panicked when they started breathing fire, until I noticed the fire was multiple colors and only harmlessly swirling around them. I remembered the first picture of the ma standing in flames and realized this was what it was depicting. As I stared at the fire I felt something in the back of my mind click as I understood. I knew fire and I knew what I had to do. It was just doing it that was now the problem.

The fire dissipated and both dragons curled in. I froze when I saw their eyes land on me. The intelligence and awareness in them was amazing and I just_ knew _they knew exactly who I was. Both of them lowered their heads until they were right in front of me. The blue one that had stared at Zuko moved forward until it's breath was twisting my hair around me. I felt breath on my back before realizing it was the red one behind me. Both slowly bowed their heads until they touched me and I felt a spark as something connected me to something**.

Both straightened up and flew back into their respective caves. The Sun Warriors straightened up And Zuko and Aang started down the stairs. I met them halfway.

"The dragons touched you too?" Zuko asked. I nodded. I hadn't realized they had touched him. Had he felt that spark at their touch?

"It was amazing, what they did." I breathed.

Zuko nodded as we continued down the stairs. "Their fire was beautiful. I saw so many colors. Colors I've never imagined."

"Like fire bending harmony." Aang added. He sounded the calmest he had been since we got here.

The chief smiled at us. "Yes. They judged you, and gave you visions of the meaning of fire bending."

"I can't believe there are still living dragons." Zuko said. "My uncle Iroh said he faced the last dragon and killed it."

"So your uncle lied."

Chief spoke up. "Actually, it wasn't a total lie. Iroh was the last outsider to face the masters. They deemed him worthy and passed the secret on to him as well."

"He must have lied to protect them, so no one else would hunt them." I really wanted to meet Iroh. He sounded like Hokage-jij.

"All this time, I thought fire bending was destruction. Since I hurt Katara, I've been too afraid and hesitant but now I know what it really is. It's energy, and life."

"Yeah." Zuko agreed. I silently agreed as well, but I was content to let them speak. "It's like the sun, but inside of you. Do you guys realize this?"

"Well, our civilization is called the Sun Warriors, so yeah."

"That;s why my fire bending was so weak before, because for so many years, hunting you was my drive. It was my purpose. So when I joined you, I lost sight of my inner fire. I was blocking myself. But now, I have a new drive. I have to help you defeat my father and restore balance to the world." Zuko said firmly. He suddenly slid into one of the stances from the statues and a powerful blast of fire came out. I smiled. It was amazing to see.

I turned to Aang as he tried and a blast only slightly weaker but still strong, came from him. Aang grinned and I hugged him. "You did it!"

The Chief came up to us. "Now that you have learned the secrets and you know about our tribe's existence we have no choice but to imprison you here forever." I just glared. I knew he was kidding. "Just kidding. But seriously, don't tell anyone."

The Chief walked us back down the mountain where the mountain met the civilization and Appa was there, waiting. We climbed up and with a wave to the chief, we were off. I asked Zuko what had been bugging me.

"Zuko, when did the dragons touch you?"

"Um, as they were moving down to touch you, actually. The blue one's wing brushed my arm and the red one's tail, my neck. Why?"

"Did you feel a spark?"

Zuko nodded slowly. "Yeah now that I think about it. You did too?" I nodded. "I wonder what they were doing."

"I don't know. Let's just get back to the air temple. I think I still have some goo in my hair."

We got back late, and Katara was the only one who woke up to meet us. Aang told her they would show what they learned in the morning. I went off to the fountain and just dunked my head in until my hair was soaked. I combed my fingers through it, pulling out random chunks of the glue that had stuck to my skull. I braided it when I was done and just sat at the base of the fountain. I went to sleep that way, thinking about what I had learned and what the dragons could have done.

I woke up in the morning, laying down with a blanket over me. Katara was making a breakfast and Teo, Haru, and Zuko were the only other ones awake. Sokka and Toph came in at the scent of the food, The Duke following soon after. When Aang showed up he dragged Zuko to stand in front of everyone. First he told them about how we had met the Sun Warriors and the he got to the dragons. At the end of his story he and Zuko were demonstrating the Dancing Dragon.

"With this technique the dragons showed us, Zuko and I will be unstoppable."

Everyone applauded after they finished. Sokka spoke with his tine that said he was getting ready to crack a joke. "Yeah, that's a great dance you tow learned there."

"It's not a dance." Zuko defended. "It's a fire bending form."

Sokka ignored him. "We'll just tap dance our way to victory over the Fire Lord."

Zuko marched up to Sokka. "It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old."

"Oh, yeah?" Katara said. "What's your little form called?"

I coughed to smother my laugh. She got him there and he knew it. "The Dancing Dragon." Everyone laughed.

***I know this is the meaning for the name Natsumi but it works in my opinion. I also couldn't find the meaning of Naruko.**

**** What the dragons did will be very important in the future. I'm not going to tell you because that would ruin it.**

**The legend was also completely made up on the spot. :D R&R**


	4. The Boiling Rock, Part 1

_Zuko's POV_

It had been a few days since my encounter with the Sun Warriors and my firebending was more powerful than ever. It came more easily, too. Aang was a quick learner but he was easily distracted. When Naruko came to watch the practice, she had to sit very still and at the very edge of the court yard or she would draw Aang's attention. She usually came towards the end of my lessons with Aang to spar with me. She had even taught me some of the beginning styles of her taijutsu and when I tried it with my firebending, the blasts were quick, on target, and very efficient. We were both teaching each other, actually. I was teaching her how to fight with swords, at her request after seeing me practice with them, and she was helping me build up my speed.

I glanced down at my wrist, where two deceptively small looking bands were, matched by some on my ankles. When she had introduced me to these weights, I had been reluctant, thinking I was strong and fast enough with out them. Then she had shown me hers and taken them off. She had run off and only maybe thirty seconds later came back with Aang's staff, that I knew had been with him on the other side of the temple. Aang had come running to get his staff a few seconds later, but it stuck with me. She was faster than him.

She had sealed the bands to me and added small amounts of chakra until they were almost dragging me down to the ground. She had walked with me around the edge of the clearing I used for training until I had gotten used to them and then had me pick up speed. We had gone like this until I could almost run at my normal speed and brought my reflexes back up to speed. Then we sparred. I had lost most of the rounds, getting thrown off when the weights threw off my sense of balance. She had told me to come to her when I could move easily and comfortably for a full day so she could make them heavier. She had only had to do it once so far but I was almost back to normal with this weight.

I looked up through my bangs to where Naruko was sitting with the others as I poured the tea I had just finished making. She was using her henge to change her appearance to some of her friends in her world and was giving an intro on each person. Right now, she had changed to look like another girl with brown hair up in two buns on her head. TenTen, I think she said her name was.

I spotted Sokka sitting away from the group and frowned. He was usually contributing to most of the conversations. I finished the tea I had made for them and as I was pouring the last cup I remembered part of a tea joke Uncle had used.

"No one can make tea like Uncle," I said, getting the attention of the others as I picked up the tray. Naruko changed back to herself. "But hopefully I learned a thing or two. Would you like to hear Uncle's favorite tea joke?"

"Sure, I like jokes." Aang shrugged.

"Bring it," Toph said.

I knelt down next to Haru and The Duke to give them their tea. "Ok, well, I can't remember how it starts but the punch line is, 'Leaf me alone, I'm bushed.'" It was only after I finished talking that I realized how ridiculous that sounded. I looked around at everyone else and saw similar expressions. I looked away. "Well, it's funnier when Uncle tells it."

"Right..." Katara said as I gave tea to her and Aang. "Maybe that's because he remembers the whole thing."

Everyone laughed at that and I smiled. Some of them were still getting used to me so I was okay with them laughing at my expense.

Toph reclined back on her hands. "It's nice to get a chance to relax a little. It hardly ever happens."

I handed Naruko her cup and she nodded at me in thanks. "It's best to only tell a joke if you _know _all of it," She said while reaching up to tap my head. It was on the side with the scar. That was another thing I noticed about her, she wasn't shy about my scar, looking me in both eyes and even occasionally touching it. Both something Mai had never even tried. Naruko nodded in Sokka's direction. "Can you see what's up with him? His silence is worrying."

I nodded as I stood up to go to Sokka. I couldn't help but notice that I was almost constantly comparing Naruko to Mai and that my feelings for Mai have dwindled into the fondness I might feel for a friend, not a lover. We were childhood sweat hearts, but I guess that was just it. It was when we were children, which neither of us even are anymore. And then the whole banishment, and now we barely knew each other, even with the time we spent together before the invasion.

I shook myself out of my thoughts as I knelt to give Sokka his tea. He looked up at me. "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" He didn't wait for a reply, just got up and walked to the shadows, out of hearing distance of the others.

I set the tray down and followed. "So what's up?"

Sokka paused for a second. "If someone was captured by the Fire Nation, where would they be taken?"

I already didn't like where this was headed. "What do you mean? Who was captured?"

"When the invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken. I just want to know where they might be."

I knew the _and rescue them_ was implied but Sokka wasn't stupid. He knew he couldn't rescue all of the troops. There must be a specific person. "I can't tell you."

"What, why not?"

"Trust me, knowing would just make you feel worse." I started to turn away but Sokka's hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"It's my dad. He was captured, too. I need to know what I put him through."

I started to reconsider. It was terrible news but it was family. Mine may suck, but not his. I gave him one more chance. "It's not good, Sokka."

"Please?" He was completely serious for once. And desperate.

I turned back to face him. "My guess is... They were taken to The Boiling Rock."

His eyes widened. "What's that?"

"The highest security prison in the Fire Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It's inescapable."

Sokka turned away. "So where is this place?"

I narrowed my eyes. _Stubborn idiot._ "Why do you need to know? What are you planning?"

"Nothing." Yeah, right. He knows he's not fooling me. "Boy, you're so paranoid."

I made my decision. "It's in the middle of a volcano between here and the Fire Nation. You guys actually flew right past it on your way here."

"Thanks, Zuko." Sokka yawned and stretched while giving me a fake smile. He patted my shoulder as he walked past me to the others. "Just knowing makes me feel better."

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure it does."

I made my way back to the group and sat next to Naruko. Though the others were warming up to me, she was the friendliest face. She raised her eyebrow at me over the rim of her tea cup and I shook my head, making a purposeful glance at the others. She nodded and turned back to Toph. Those two had gotten close with their similar sense of humor and personality traits. In fact, she seemed to be able to adapt herself to others interests and personalities, making her someone to like and trust. What confused me, though, was that she didn't seem to realize what she was doing.

Naruko was the first of us to leave to our rooms. I had also noticed that while the others occasionally slept in a room, they stayed out here in the courtyard away from us. Or me, most likely.

I went to the hallway that had our rooms in it ten minutes after Naruko had left. I heard faint noise from Naruko's room and knocked on her door. I opened it when she answered to see her sitting on one side of her bed, sharpening her kunai. From the ease she handled the small, but deadly, knives I knew she could wield them as easily as bending came to me. I was glad Aang had been the one to find her, not my sister. If she was on her side, then we'd be screwed.

I looked around her room and saw it was bare except for what must have already been here. She didn't have many personal items, I guessed. The things she seemed to care about the most were her necklace and headband.

"You can sit down, Prince. I won't bite, though no promises about scratching." I smiled a little, glancing down at her sharper, and slightly longer than normal, nails and sat down across from her on her bed as she packed up her kunai. "So, what's Sokka's deal?"

I debated on telling her but decided to after thinking it over. If she came along then breaking into and out of the prison would be slightly easier. I knew first hand she was good at stealth, she had snuck up on me one time to see if she could scare me. She had told me her lifestyle involved infiltration and if we wanted, she could change how we looked.

"He asked me about where war prisoners from their failed invasion would be taken. He wants to rescue his father but the problem is, he was most likely taken to The Boiling Rock. It's inescapable."

"How's that?" She asked. I could see the gleam of a challenge in her eye. Of course she would see it as a challenge.

"It's on an island in the middle of a volcano..."

Her groan cut me off. "_Please_ tell me it's not lava? I've already ran inside a volcano and kinda had a hand in making it erupt."

I shot her a weird look and continued, making a mental note to ask her about that later. "...No, it's a boiling lake. The water can't be touched or you'll be burned."

Naruko's eyebrows drew together. "How do they get on and off the island, then?"

"Gondola's."

Naruko hummed. I watched her think about what I said, seeing her eyes reflect her emotions and play across her face. She suddenly grinned, and she looked so much like a fox that I blinked. "It sounds fun. I'm in."

I blinked again then huffed in bemusement. "Fun isn't exactly what I would call it."

She shrugged. "Well your not me. I'm so _bored_ sitting around doing nothing. Sparring with you has been whats kept me from going insane."

"And you're not already?" I teased.

She shoved me with her foot. "Let me make sure I got all this. Inescapable prison surrounded by boiling water and crawling with Fire Nation guards, not to mention that it's _in_ the Fire Nation. Anything else?"

I winced at her wording. I had forgotten to take the guard part into account. "No, but it sounds even more impossible out loud like that."

She stood up and stretched. "Yeah, well, my nickname back home was 'most unpredictable ninja.' I think I can manage. Kami knows, I've done harder."

I stood up with her. "Kami?"

"It's what we call one of our gods. Kami, Fate, and Shinigami are the most commonly referred ones. Shinigami are death gods, by the way. There was this one guy on the other side of the war that followed a god named Jashin. He was pretty much immortal but his religion was sick. It involved him sacrificing anyone he could get his hands on to keep his immortality. He's not really dead either. One of my friends, whose sensei had been killed by him, blew him up into pieces in a giants hole. Even after that he wasn't dead so Shikamaru caved the hole in. He's probably still down there. No one checks."

I stared wide eyed after her as she walked away. I couldn't string any solid or coherent thoughts together. I just followed behind her until I realized we were heading for my room.

"Uh, why are we going to my room?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Sokka's most likely going to leave when everyone's asleep which shouldn't be much longer. Don't you want to get anything?"

I nodded as I held back the blood I could feel rushing to my cheeks. I hurried into my room and grabbed my pack. I kept it mostly packed for a quick getaway.

I went back out and walked with Naruko back to the courtyard. Both of us silenced our steps and breathing as we moved past all the others. Aang was snoring loudly but we stayed silent. Naruko started heading to Appa and I got her attention, shaking my head. I mouthed "What are you doing?"

She pointed at Appa and rolled her eyes but mouthed back. "It's Sokka. He's gonna think he can take a bison unnoticed into the Fire Nation."

I realized her logic and both of us climbed on Appa. He opened an eye and groaned at us but Naruko silenced him by scratching him. Both of us settled into the saddle to wait for Sokka. Naruko fell asleep after fifteen minutes and I leaned against the side of the saddle with my arms crossed and closed my eyes to wait.

I lost track of time but figured it must have been at least an hour before dawn when I heard Sokka's footsteps. I must have fallen asleep. Sokka must have been waiting to make sure everyone was in a deep sleep since it was at least two hours before anyone woke up.

I winced as I heard him try and fail to be quiet. I nudged Naruko with my leg and she immediately woke up. She listened and heard Sokka's footsteps as well. She sat up and both of us waited as he neared. Appa's head lifted and we knew he had started climbing him. We heard him shush Appa and continue climbing.

I saw his hand grab the edge of the saddle and spoke as he pulled his head over. "Not up to anything, huh?"

Both Naruko and I winced as Sokka yelled and fell back to the ground. We stayed silent but no one woke up. Naruko and I moved to lean over the edge and Sokka glared up at us. "Fine, you caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?"

"I'm never happy."

Sokka got up and worked on his pack where some supplies had fallen out. "Look, I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea. It was my decision to stay when things were going wrong. It's my mistake, and it's my job to fix it." I jumped down and heard Naruko follow. She was staying silent for some reason. "I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me, Zuko."

I let Sokka walk by and start to climb Appa again. "You need to regain your honor? Believe me, I get it. Both of us are going with you."

"No," Sokka said determinedly. "I have to do this alone."

Naruko finally spoke. "Sokka, if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it's to never do alone, what you can do with others. What if something goes wrong? You could die, and your father could die. How would that effect everyone else? Knowing you didn't want them to go with you?"

Sokka paused and I looked at her. That again, sounded like something Uncle might say. I gave Sokka more reason to pause. "How are you going to get there, on Appa? Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison day cares." Sokka sighed and climbed back down, defeated. I turned away. "We'll take my war balloon."

I heard Sokka follow but didn't bother to check if Naruko was. Her footsteps were too silent to hear anyways. "Guys, wait." Sokka and I turned to Naruko. "We need to leave a note or something for the others."

She was right. Sokka pulled out some paper and ink from Katara's bag and started writing. "I'll say were going fishing to get some meat, but how do I explain you...Hey, why are you coming with us anyways, Naruko?"

"Sokka, I'm trained in the art of stealth and infiltration and am good at pulling off the impossible. This is the kind of stuff I've done since I was twelve. Just say you're showing me more of what your world looks like."

That was a good excuse and Sokka didn't fight on her reasons for coming along. I told Sokka to add exercises for Aang to do when he hears a badger frog croak and he made a comment about Aang not liking homework. Sokka finished the note and put it under Momo's arm where the others would find it.

I led the way to where I had taken the war balloon and we climbed in silently. Naruko sat down with her legs crossed while Sokka leaned against the side. I started firebending the wood and we started rising. As we got higher Naruko closed her eyes and moaned. When we hit an up draft she sank her nails into the floor of the balloon.

Sokka grinned. "Don't like heights?"

"You were fine on Appa," I added.

She cracked open an eye to glare at us. "The only times I have been in the air the place was one) big enough for me to not realize I was in the air, and two) flew smoothly. Or I was unconscious or falling. This thing is small and bumpy, no offense Zuko. Plus, Appa is a sentient being and I'd trust him. This thing could be destroyed too easily, just a small hole and we're down."

Sokka sat down in front of her. "Now that I think about it, none of us really know about your life back in your world. Can you talk about it to take up some time?"

We hit a different air current and I saw her knuckles whiten. "Let me get used to this."

Sokka and I fell into an awkward silence while waiting for her to calm down. "Pretty clouds," Sokka said after a minute.

I looked around us at the clouds. "Yeah...Fluffy."

Sokka started whistling and I looked at him. "What?"

"What?" He echoed. "I didn't say anything." There was another small pause. "You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons."

"No kidding?"

"Yep. A balloon. But for war."

I added more juice to the fire that I was monitoring. "If there's one thing my Dad's good at, it's war."

"Yeah, it seems to run in the family."

I turned to him, being sure not to accidentally kick Naruko. "Hey, hold on, not everybody in my family is like that."

Sokka casually shrugged. "I know, I know, you've changed."

I glanced into the flames, watching them but seeing something else, some_one_ else. "I meant my uncle. He was more of a father to me...and I really let him down."

Naruko raised her hand to get my attention. "I _know_ he would be proud of you, Zuko."

Sokka added to her comment. "You left your home to come help us, that's hard."

"It wasn't that hard."

Sokka seemed surprised. "Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?"

"Well I did have a girlfriend, Mai." I glanced down at Naruko but she didn't react, just kept her eyes closed. I don't know why I thought she would.

Sokka grinned. "That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?"

I smiled but it quickly dropped. "Yeah. Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it."

Sokka leaned back and crossed his arms. "My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

I glanced at him. The moon...That princess with the white hair at the north pole. She must have been touched by the moon spirit. I think I remember Uncle saying something. "That's rough, Buddy."

Naruko spoke up while setting her hands in her lap but she didn't stand up. "I'm fine now. You should know your all's small talk is painful to listen to and then the subject just got depressing."

Sokka sat back down in front of her. "What about you? No love interests? Boyfriends? In a totally friendly way, you're hot."

I listened carefully to her reply, not aware of Sokka's eyes looking between us. She sighed and shifted so one leg was bent and her arm wrapped around her knee. "One thing you should know about me is I've been an orphan since I was born. And a very powerful demon attacked the day I was born and killed a lot of people. Since I was born the day of the attack, no one could look at me with out remembering it."

Sokka looked terrible for having gotten her talking about it and I kept my expression carefully blank, though I knew my eyes were blazing. "You can stop..."

Naruko shook her head. "No, it's okay. You're my friends, right? Anyway, I didn't really make any close friends until I had graduated the academy and was put on a team with Sakura and Sasuke. I think I may have considered Sasuke romantically at one point in our time as a team but things changed. He changed." She whispered the last part. "Some things happened and Sasuke betrayed the village and left. I was sent on the retrieval team and was the one to confront him. We fought, he tried to kill me, and almost succeeded. I still have the scar." Naruko put her hand on her chest, only a few inches away from her heart.

Sokka was silent in sympathy. I kept the flame going. "Why did he leave?" I asked. I wanted to know if the guy had a good reason for turning on her. I was shocked at the strength of my protectiveness over her.

She glanced up at me and stared into my eyes for a second. "Something you should know is Sasuke's childhood was hell. He had an older brother named Itachi. He was a prodigy. He was in the strongest rank of ninja aside from sanin or kage when he was only thirteen. Sasuke didn't know it until recently but Itachi was ordered by a man named Danzo and some Elders to wipe out his clan because they were trying to take over the village. It would have resulted in civil war. Itachi was a pacifist and loved Sasuke more than anything, but he did it on the condition that Sasuke was sparred and taken care of. He wanted Sasuke to kill him and tortured him mentally when he found Itachi over his parents bodies and again when he was thirteen. A man named Orochimaru, played on Sasuke's desire for power and put a mark on him that made him crave it more. Sasuke left to train with him. Killed him and Itachi, before finding out the truth. Now he wants to destroy my home."

Sokka was solemn. "He's on the other side of the war, isn't he?"

She nodded. "Can we find a different topic, now, please?"

"Um, did you ever learn who your parents were?"

Naruko smiled. "Yes. My father's name was Minato Namikaze. He was the Fourth Hokage, the leader of my village. He died saving my village from the demon. My mother's name was Kushina Uzumaki. She... She was fatally wounded by the demon not long after giving birth to me."

I narrowed my eyes. She was leaving out something. Something important, but after what she's revealed, I didn't want to push it. It did anger me that her village abused her when she was the daughter of their hero. I knew without her saying, that she was either neglected or abused. "Why were you treated badly when you were his daughter?"

She slowly stood up, not letting go of the edge. "Not a lot of people knew, including me. Only those who were close to my father, like Kakashi, knew. He was his student. Anyway, in the Third Shinobi World War, he made a technique that allowed him to teleport through enemy ranks, wiping out a lot of them. For protection against his enemies, I wasn't allowed to know."

I understood that. I knew first hand that children were not excused from the father's enemies' wrath. If anything, they were targeted.

"Hey, Naruko, you know any games or something?" Sokka asked.

Naruko stared at him in surprise. "Sokka...Wow. Totally off topic and random. Most of the games I know need a lot of space but there is always rock, paper, scissors.*"

"Rock, paper, what-now?"

Naruko rolled her eyes. "Scissors. It's a hand game. For rock, you're hand is in a fist, scissors, you only have your index and middle finger out, and paper, your hand is flat. Like this." Naruko showed us the motions and then explained the game. I only participated in a few rounds, but eventually just stood back and watched Sokka and Naruko get into it. Naruko won the majority of the time and I could tell she was letting Sokka win the times he did. Sokka could tell too.

"How do you win all the time?" He whined.

She didn't look away from Sokka's hands as they continued. "I can read the motions your hand is making and I know what shape you're going to do. Watch my hands and wrists to see if you can tell."

Sokka stopped. "That's not fair! Cover your eyes or something."

Naruko rolled her eyes but reached to her waist where her headband was. She untied it and then wrapped it around her eyes. "Happy, now?"

Sokka waved his and in front of her face and made different faces, trying to be sure. When he was confident she couldn't see, they continued playing. I smirked as Naruko still won most of the time, but I think she was making her intentions obvious in her hands to get Sokka to learn how to predict motions. I was taught a similar lesson by Master Piando. He was looking at her hands the entire time, and soon was able to win at least half the time.

I looked at the sun to see it was around two and we were about halfway there. At this rate we would arrive a little before dawn. "Okay, time to stop playing. Let's eat something."

Both stopped and Naruko lifted her headband off her face. I reached for our bags and tossed them to Sokka and Naruko so they could get the food. We settled into a comfortable silence as we ate, only interrupted when I heard a faint humming sound. I looked around and saw Sokka looking at Naruko.

Her eyes were closed as she hummed and ate some rice balls. She didn't seem to notice Sokka and I staring at her. When she finally opened her eyes she seemed surprised as she self consciously rubbed her arms. "What?"

"You were humming. It was really nice." Sokka shrugged.

"Where did you learn it?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I heard it when I was little and I guess it stuck."

"My uncle would love to get his hands on you. He liked to have music nights on my ship and he would probably teach you every song he knows."

She tilted her head. "Should I be worried?"

I shook my head. "No, but he'll probably make tea and play pai sho with you."

Naruko laughed a bit but soon went silent. I was curious at it but the silence right now was comfortable. The rest of the day was spent mostly talking about random things. Naruko had gotten Sokka to tell her about how they met Aang and some of their adventures. I listened as well, curious as to how they had found Aang and about some of the things they had been doing while I was tracking them. It was when Sokka was telling us about meeting King Bumi, who I couldn't believe was over a hundred years old, but then again, it explained why he was the way he was, that Naruko fell asleep.

"I'll stop now. I'm tired, too." Sokka yawned. I looked around to see it was already dark, only the smallest hint of light on the horizon. "Wake me up when ever you want to sleep. We can take shifts."

I nodded as Sokka sat back on the small seat and relaxed, soon falling asleep.

XXX

I woke up to Naruko's hand on my shoulder. I blinked, trying to wake up all the way. "What is it?" I looked at the sky to see it was just before dawn, enough cover for us to not be noticed.

"I'm pretty sure the large mountain with constant steam coming off of it is the Boiling Rock."

I scowled at her as I sat up and shook Sokka awake. "No need for the sarcasm. We're here, Sokka. Get ready." Sokka jerked up and looked at the volcano. "There's plenty of steam to keep us covered. As long as we're quiet, we should be able to navigate through it without getting caught."

I had my eyes on the steam as we approached the volcano when Naruko spoke. "Problem with that plan. This thing is in the air because it's using hot air, right? _Hello_, flying into a _volcano_ here. Not gonna work."

I barely held back from smacking my forehead. Of course. Sokka gripped the edge tighter. "It's our only way to get in without being spotted."

I looked at Naruko to see her eyes flashing around our surroundings. "Okay, Zuko, try and give this thing as much air time as it can get. When we get close enough, I'm going to jump with you two to the shore."

I started firebending into the balloon as soon as we breached the steam. We only rose a little bit before the fire stopped working and we went down. The propeller on the back was the only thing pushing us toward the island but we were approaching the water quickly. Sokka and I lost our balance as we dropped closer to the water. Naruko grabbed Sokka and threw him onto her back before grabbing my arm.

"Hold on! In 3...2...Now!" Naruko jumped just as we crashed into the surface of the water. Sokka yelped but managed to stay quiet as Naruko jumped. With her pulling me along, we made the large jump to the shore, landing inches away from the water. Naruko didn't stop or let go, instead rolling us forward as we landed so we flipped further away from the edge. I knew why when I heard my war balloon crash against the shore where we had landed, our stuff flying on the ground in front of us.

I turned around to look at my ruined balloon. The metal rods that had supported the balloon were broken and twisted beyond repair.

Naruko stood up and dusted her clothes off, looking at the destroyed balloon. "I hate to say I told you so, but..."

I glared at her and she held up her hands in surrender. "How are we going to get off the island if the balloon won't work?"

Sokka stood up from where he had landed and started walking to the wreckage. "We'll figure something out. I suspected that it might be a one-way ticket."

"You knew this would happen and you wanted to come anyway?" I asked incredulously.

"My dad might be here. I had to come and see." Sokka said as he picked up the balloon and shoving it on top of the rest of the wreckage. Naruko must have caught on to what he was doing, as she was helping him. "My uncle said I never thought things though, but this..." I tangled my fingers in my hair. "This is just crazy!"

Sokka turned his head to glare at me. "Hey, I never wanted you to come along in the first place and for the record, I always think things through. But my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time I'm playing it by ear." Sokka and Naruko finished stuffing the balloon into the basket. "So there." Sokka hissed and jerked his hands away from where he had set them on the hot metal and Naruko kicked the remains of the war balloon into the water, where it quickly sunk.

I stepped forward. "What are you doing?"

"It doesn't work anyway, and we don't want anyone to find it."

I glanced at Naruko, curious as to why she hadn't said anything, and saw she was studying the prison. I looked up to see it myself. "I hope you know what you're doing. There's no turning back now."

"First things first." Naruko said. "We need to get in unnoticed and get some disguises. I'll get to the top and see what the guard's look like and I can use a henge on us until we actually find some outfits."

I nodded but looked at her hair. I liked it at this color, but yellow was so not found anywhere. "You have to change your hair to black or dark brown. That's the usual color for the Fire Nation."

Naruko scowled, grabbing a chuck of her hair. "Fine. Henge." With a small and sign and a poof, Naruko's yellow hair turned midnight black. Her whiskers also disappeared and I blinked a the sudden change. After looking her over, I decided that black didn't suit her.

"You might want to change yours and Sokka's eyes to brown or gold. You're eyes will stand out a lot." Naruko rolled her eyes before making the same seal. Her eyes turned gold. She grabbed Sokka and held onto him as she did it again, changing his eyes. I pushed the thought of how similar she looked to Mai out of my head violently. They were nothing alike.

"Anything else, Mr. Makeover?" I shook my head and she jumped up, leaping to the rim of the prison and disappearing.

"She sure comes in handy. I'd never have thought about the appearances, let alone a way to change them." Sokka said, looking at his eyes in the reflection of his boomerang.

I hid a smirk as a picture of him at that one island came to mind. "Didn't you dress like a girl or something at that one island? The one with the giant serpent?"

Sokka made a face and didn't reply. Naruko came back, a thoughtful look on her face. I still couldn't get used to the black hair and gold eyes. "I have clones henged as bugs to get the layout of the prison and I know where to get the outfits. Let's go." Naruko grabbed my arm and did the henge. Looking down at myself, I saw that I was in different clothes, but I still felt my own. While I was looking at myself, Naruko did the same to Sokka and herself. She started walking up the island. "This way. There's a way in over here."

Sokka and I followed after her. "I'm so glad we found you. You make things a heck of a lot easier."

Naruko suddenly stopped and turned around. "That reminds me. Zuko, come here." I cautiously made my way to stand in front of her and she grabbed my wrist, taking off the weight and doing the same to my other wrist. I caught on and kicked my shoes off, taking off the ones on my ankles. "You might need the extra help."

I shook my hands and rotated my feet, trying to adjust to the sudden loss of weight. "What are those?" Sokka asked as we continued walking. I stumbled as I tried to adjust to the feeling.

Naruko twirled one of the weights around her finger as we walked. "This is a chakra weight. The more chakra I add to this, the heavier it gets. They help build up speed and strength. I sometimes where them, but they can only take so much chakra. One of my friends, Lee, has weights and when he takes them off, huge craters are left in the ground wherever they land."

I felt my jaw slacken but it was nowhere near Sokka's wide open mouth. "He must be fast."

Naruko nodded. "I'd say he and his sensei, Gai, could beat Aang with speed. Aang can be seen when he runs as fast as he can. Those two...you see them blur and next thing you know, you're beaten on the ground. Few can meet them speed wise. Now, enough of that. We need to focus now."

Sokka kept his mouth shut as Naruko led us into the prison The place looked so much larger and inescapable from inside it. Naruko led us inside and straight down multiple hallways. Seems her clones already helped her learn the layout. We arrived at the uniform room with no interactions with the guards. Naruko released her henge on our clothes as soon as the door closed. She eyed both me and Sokka before turning to the shelves of clothes. She pulled down three of the helmets and clothes, tossing ours at us. "Those should fit. We'll change back to back. If you peak, I will hurt you."

Both Sokka and I nodded quickly before turning around and changing. We stayed facing the wall for at least a few minutes until we heard Naruko say it was okay to turn around. I blinked again when I saw her. If I didn't know it was her, I'd think I was looking at an actual Fire Nation native.

"What took you so long to change?" Sokka asked.

Naruko glared at him before showing her open pouch to us. For a second I didn't realize what she was getting at before I realized the weapons were gone. "Where are your kunai and shurikan?"

Naruko smirked. "You want to search me?"

I held back as much of the blood rushing to my face as I could, noticing Sokka's skin turn darker. Oh.

"What do we do with our clothes?" Sokka asked, picking up his.

Naruko went to her pouch in her pile of clothes and pulled out the scroll I recognized as the storage one. She unrolled it to a certain seal before holding out her hand. "Clothes." We handed them over and they were sealed away. She looked up at the ceiling before jumping up to the vent. She unhooked it and slid her pouch inside. I saw a flash of blonde in the vent and knew she was giving it to a clone to hide.

"Okay, the important thing to remember when going under cover is to stay in character. That means following the orders they give you as soon as possible and not interfering with the other people. Try to stay in the back and remain unseen. You two work on finding your dad and I'll work on a way out. Got it?"

Both of us nodded before leaving the room. The hall was still empty as we came out. Naruko was in front ans held up a hand. "A large group is running down the hall toward us."

Sure enough, we were able to hear the pounding of multiple footsteps before a large group of guards ran by us. One of them stopped and yelled at us. "Guards, there's a scuffle in the yard. Come on!"

We ran after the group, coming out in a large courtyard. There was a large group of the prisoners in a large circle around two people. As we got to the front of the crowd, I saw it was a guard and a very large prisoner. The prisoner was turning away from the guard. "I didn't do anything. I'm going back to my cell."

The guard made a fire whip and slashed it down right behind him. "Stop right there, Chit Sang."

I was getting ready to intervene when two hands grabbed me. Sokka and Naruko were holding me back and I remembered Naruko's advice. I let them pull me back.

Chit Sang had stopped but not turned around as the guard walked up to him. "I've had it with your unruly behavior."

Chit Sang turned his head to look at him. "What did I do?"

"He wants to know what he did. Isn't that cute?" The guard leaned in very close to us. He was right in front of Naruko when he asked that question. She tilted her head and put on a smirk that didn't belong on her face.

"Very."

I didn't realize my fist had clenched until I felt her hand on it. I relaxed my hand as the guard turned back to Chit Sang. "You didn't bow down when I walked by, Chit Sang."

I barely hid my disgust as Chit Sang jerked in surprise. "What? That's not a prison rule."

The guard pushed up the part covering his eyes and got in Chit Sangs face. Well, as much as he could considering his height. "Do it."

Chit Sang wasn't intimidated. "Make me."

They stared off for a few more seconds before the guard smirked and pulled back. He walked to where he had been standing before, where his smirk grew. He started making another whip before flinging it at Chit Sang's head. Chit Sang turned around and stopped the whip, sending it back at the guard, who dispersed it into the ground, a triumphant grin on his face. He clucked his tongue, shaking his head. "Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler." The guard turned and pointed at Sokka. "You. Help me take him in."

"Meet back here in an hour." Sokka whispered before jogging after the guard.

The group started dispersing. The majority of the guards started going inside, talking about the lounge and Naruko tugged me along after them. When we got there, the guards were taking off their helmets. Naruko looked at me. "Do you want me to...?"

Naruko obviously wasn't comfortable with covering up my scar but was offering anyways. I shook my head. "No."

Naruko nodded before taking off her helmet. "Try and get information from some of them."

I nodded as she grabbed some food and sat down at a table where a group of male guards were. I was grabbing some food, watching the group welcome her with suggestive smiles and lingering eyes. I didn't like it but I knew it was a good way to get information.

"Hey, new guy." I turned around at the voice, looking over to where two guys were stirring with a female guard. "I know it's a rule to have your helmet on at all times but this is the lounge. Relax."

I saw my chance to get some information and walked over to them. "But what if there's an incident? If I'm not prepared someone could strike me on the head."

The group laughed before the female guard spoke up. "Give it a week, he'll loosen up."

I sat down at the end of the table. "Can the new guy ask you veterans a few questions about the prison?"

The female guard spoke up while closing her eyes. "No, you can't date the female guards."

The one who had spoken to me originally put his hand over his mouth, though he spoke clearly. "Trust me, you don't want to."

The third one laughed as the female guard threw her tea cup at his head. "No, that's not it. The Boiling Rock, it holds the Fire Nation's most dangerous criminals, right?" All of them nodded. "So what about war prisoners?"

The female guard nodded her head slowly. "Yeah, there are some of those but only the ones who did serious stuff are brought here. Most of them are kept in prisons close to where they were."

I thought about how to phrase my next question. The invasion should be common knowledge among the Fire Nation by now, so... "The Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom were responsible for that invasion, right? Are there prisoners from there?"

The guard tapped his tray as he thought. "I know there are some Earth Kingdom soldiers here. Not a lot, but some, but Water Tribe...I don't think there are any from there. The only benders are in the North Pole and they don't like to come out of there."

The female guard nodded. "Yeah. I don't know about any Water Tribe prisoners. Why do you ask?"

I quickly tried to think of an excuse. "Uh...My mother was..."

The guards quickly waved me off and I almost sighed in relief. "Enough said but sorry, none."

I nodded, standing up. "Thanks anyways."

They nodded before going back to talking amongst themselves. I needed to tell Sokka about that. I started making my way back to the courtyard when someone fell into step beside me. I looked out of the corner of my eye, relaxing when it was just Naruko. She kept facing forward as we walked through the courtyard. "So, what did you get?"

I looked around to see if I could find Sokka. "No Water Tribe prisoners are here. Where's Sokka?"

"He's on the tower at our left, very top." Naruko led me over to the tower and I saw a small figure in a guard uniform at the top. As soon as we were inside and at the stairs she spoke again. "I found two possible ways out of here and a third way which is our last resort."

I nodded as we reached the ledge where Sokka was standing. Naruko whistled to get his attention and he snapped around. "Naruko, Zuko?"

I shushed him as I stood beside him. "Listen, I asked around the lounge. There are no Water tribe prisoners. I'm afraid your father's not here."

Sokka's eyes widened as he shoved up the covering on his eyes. Naruko laid a hand on his shoulder. "What? Are you sure? Did you double check?"

I so didn't want to say this. "Yeah. I'm sure."

Sokka shrugged off Naruko's hand and walked to the wall. "No...No!" Sokka slammed his hands on the wall and turned around. "So we came all this way for nothing?"

"I'm really sorry, Sokka."

Sokka leaned against the wall. "I failed...again."

I racked my brain for something to say. "Oh, what would Uncle say?" I looked around for anything I could think of that could be inspiration before my eyes landed on the clouds. "Sometimes clouds have two sides, a dark and light...and a silver lining in between." I grabbed the rail as I thought of how to say this like Uncle would. "It's like a silver sandwich." I heard Naruko make a sound like she was trying not to laugh and glared at her. She held her hands up in peace and I continued. "So when life seems hard...take a bite out of the silver sandwich."

I heard Sokka run up and looked at him as he grabbed the rail and leaned over. "Maybe we haven't fail after all."

I smiled. "That's the spirit." I crossed my arms triumphantly over my chest. "I can't believe that worked. I didn't even know what I was saying."

Sokka turned to me. "No, what you said didn't make any sense at all. But look." He pointed at someone in the courtyard and I followed his line of sight until I saw a girl about our age with red-ish brown hair sitting on a rock. "It's Suki!"

I remembered that he mentioned a girl named Suki on the way here. She was part of that group of females who attacked on Kyoshi Island. A bell started ringing and a guards voice rang out, telling the prisoners to go back to their cells. I looked at Sokka and could almost see the hearts in his eyes as he ran off.

I stood with Naruko, watching him run off before following after him at a more natural pace. "So what were those escape plans?"

"The problem is all the plans are a way off this island but once we get out of here, we still need to find a way off the island as a whole."

Well, crap. I hadn't thought of that at all after the balloon was trashed. "I guess we have to cross that bridge when we get to it. What are the idea's though?"

She hushed her voice as we got inside from the courtyard. "The coolers could act as a boat but we'd need to get one off the wall. The gondola's could work if we had a hostage from high up and the last resort is me making clones. I could run across the water or the cables while carrying you."

I immediately saw why that one was a last resort. We turned a hallway and saw Sokka pacing outside a door. He waved us over. "Hey, Naruko could you..." Sokka was pointing at himself and the door.

She sighed. "She needs to meet me anyways, so I'll slip in with you and release the henge. Zuko, you stand watch and knock three times if someone's coming."

_Naruko's POV_

I closed the door behind Sokka and stood off to the side as Suki sat up on her bed. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

Sokka crossed his arms. "You mean you don't recognize me?"

Suki scowled and looked away. "You people all look the same to me."

I got tired off this little guessing game. "Sokka, stop being an idiot."

Sokka turned to me. "Hey!" I shrugged and looked at Suki. She was smiling with tears in her eyes and I looked away as she tackled Sokka and hugged him. Sokka stood up and held her arms. "The other Kyoshi Warriors, are they here?"

Suki looked down. "No, I don't know where they are. They locked me in here because I'm the leader."

Sokka cupped her face in his hand. "Well you won't be here for long. I'm busting you out."

Suki grabbed his hand. "I'm so glad to see you Sokka. I knew you'd come. Wait, why are your eyes gold?"

Sokka looked at me. "Oh. It's her doing. Suki, this is Naruko. Naruko, Suki. She's a ninja from a different world."

Suki raised an eyebrow but turned to me to confirm it. I shrugged. "It's the best explanation we have. Oh, and I don't really look like this. Release." My henge disappeared and I took my helmet off so Suki could see me. She was visibly shocked but covered it well. I put my henge back up just as Zuko knocked on the door. I held a finger to my lips and looked at Sokka. "I need to talk to you. Find me." He nodded and I slid out quietly. I nodded at Zuko as I passed him and went down the hall. I waited around a corner, listening to what was happening.

I heard the female guard say she needed to get into Suki's room and Zuko's lame excuse as to why she couldn't. I heard her tell him to move aside and I heard a thud. I peaked around the corner to see Zuko pinning the guards arm behind her and Sokka slipping out of the room. The guard noticed Sokka, though, and told him to arrest Zuko. Sokka looked back at me and I nodded. He squared his shoulders and grabbed Zuko's arm, shoving him to the ground. Zuko looked up at me and I nodded at him, telling him to play along.

The female guard, Sokka, and Zuko walked by me and I ran up to them. "What happened?"

The female guard was rubbing her arm. "We have a traitor."

"I'll help take him in."

The female guard nodded and I walked to be on Zuko's right. We walked him into an empty interrogation cell and the female guard tossed him prison clothes. "Change."

Sokka was ordered to go tell the warden and I stood outside the door with the female guard while Zuko changed. The guard uniform was tossed outside and I peaked inside to see Zuko leaning against the wall. "Look sharp. It's the warden."

I stood back up as a man came down the hall. I wasn't impressed with him. His features were kind of harsh but he had nothing on Ibiki and Anko. The female guard opened the door and I saw recognition flash in the Warden's eyes. "Well, well, well. I never thought I'd find you in here, Prince Zuko."

I saw Zuko's eyes widen but other than that, no major change in expression. "How did you know who I am?"

"How could I not? You broke my niece's heart." I hid a wince.

Zuko uncrossed his arms and stood up straight. "You're Mai's uncle? I never meant to hurt her." I shoved back the beginnings of jealousy I could feel churning in my gut. I couldn't have a reason to feel jealous.

The Warden cut Zuko off. "Quiet. You're my special prisoner now and you best behave. If these criminals find out who you are- the traitor prince who let his nation down- why, they'd tear you to shreds."

I bit back the retort on my tongue. Zuko recrossed his arms. "So what's in it for you? Why don't you just tell my father and collect the reward?"

"Oh, in due time, believe me, I intend to collect." The Warden turned and left and I met Zuko's eyes as I closed the door. I knew Zuko would be taken to a cell and I needed to find Sokka. I saw the female guard check the lock on Zuko's door before starting to walk away. "The door won't open until they let him out." She said to me when I paused by the door.

I nodded and started walking around, trying to find Sokka. I saw one of my clones as a fly hovering at a corner and signaled it to find Sokka. I followed my clone until I saw him heading to the lounge. I sat down beside him and snatched a roll of bread from his tray. "The Warden is Mai's uncle."

Sokka whistled, raising his eyebrow. "Well, that was unexpected. What did you want to talk about?"

"Three possible ways out. One is to find a way to get a cooler off the wall and use it as a boat. Another is to get a hostage high up enough that they wouldn't cut the cable's for the gondola and the last one is for me to use my clones and carry you out across the water or cables."

Sokka grimaced. "I don't like the last one."

I shrugged, picking apart my bread. "Zuko didn't either. But there's also another problem. How do we get off the island as a whole, not just the prison?"

Sokka grimaced but was staring at his tray in thought. "Tell me about the cooler one. I had kinda thought about that earlier after seeing Chit Sang."

"I checked them out. They are bolted from the inside but if you undue the bolts than I can pull them out of the wall from outside. The info I got on the layout showed me a blind spot but the current is slow and who knows how long it could take."

Sokka swirled his cup in his hand as he thought. He suddenly jumped up. "Zuko can get inside and undue the bolts."

I followed Sokka as he walked through the halls, stopping at an engine room to grab a wrench before going to the inside courtyard. We saw Zuko and Suki mopping the floor between the stairs and a section of the wall away from everyone. "Oh, good. You guys have met."

Neither of them reacted. They just kept on mopping. "Actually, we met a long time ago."

Zuko didn't seem to remember what she was talking about. "We did?"

"Yeah, you kind of burned down my village."

Zuko stopped mopping and I saw him cringe a bit. "Oh, sorry about that. Nice to see you again." Zuko moved away from Suki as he said that. Smart man.

As if that was the cue, Suki and Zuko leaned their mops against the wall and crouched down. Sokka and I took our places across from them. "Okay, Naruko's plan that I feel is most possible is this. Use the coolers to get across the water."

Suki looked at me in shock. "How?"

Sokka seemed to be on a roll so I let him take care of it. "The coolers are built to keep the heat out and the cold in. It should work on the water as well."

"Are you sure?" Zuko asked.

I nodded. "My clones info showed me a blind spot between two watch towers and I can help get the cooler from the wall."

Sokka nodded too. "I had thought of the cooler thing after watching Chit Sang. The current would take us straight across. As long as we're quiet, no one should notice."

"But how are we going to get the cooler out?" Suki asked.

I jumped just like everyone else when Chit Sang's voice rang out above us. I cursed myself for not paying attention. "Yeah, how are you going to get the cooler out?"

Chit Sang swung himself under the stair rail and onto the ground in front of us. Sokka tried to cover up our plan but was failing miserably. "What? We didn't...We didn't say that."

I sighed. "Just give it up. He heard."

Chit Sang nodded. "Every word. Now either I come with you or the Warden hears about this little plan."

Suki looked at Sokka. "I guess we have no choice."

Sokka frowned. "Okay, you're in."

I held up a hand and pointed at Chit Sang, putting on a sugary smile. "If this plan gets compromised in any way, I'll throw you into the water after cutting out your loose tongue. Understand me?" Chit Sang paled and nodded quickly and my smile fell into something gentler. "Glad we understand each other."

I turned to Sokka, ignoring his pale face, and he took his cue. He pulled out the wrench and gave it to Zuko, who hid it under his clothes. "Now, first we need someone to unbolt the cooler from the inside."

Chit Sang smirked. "Oh, I can get you inside."

"How?" I asked. I hid a smirk as Chit Sang immediately spoke. Wimp.

"Quickest way to get inside is to firebend. We just need to get into a little fight and you need to bend at me."

I looked around for something they could fight over when my eyes landed on the mops. "Zuko, hit him with the mop."

"What?" Zuko asked, reeling back.

I pointed at his mop. "Hit him with the mop. Chit Sang, you throw him around, Zuko, firebend. Got it?" Both nodded and I continued. "Sokka and I will head out and blend into the others over there and Suki will follow after she counts to sixty. Count to a hundred after Suki leaves and then start. Once you get in the cooler, you have an hour, okay?"

Everyone nodded and Sokka and I left to go integrate in the crowd. I counted in my head and when I got to sixty, Suki came out with her mop and started working a few feet behind Sokka. I counted to a hundred and Chit Sang came out and stopped a few feet away with his arms crossed. Zuko came out mopping, moving the mop too far backwards as he moved. He soon jabbed Chit Sang with the end of his mop, 'setting him off.'

Chit Sang turned on Zuko. "Hey, what are you, stupid? Watch where you're going."

Chit Sang and Zuko grabbed each others shoulders as they grappled. Chit Sang swung Zuko out further into the open. "Hey, you watch who you're shoving."

Zuko shoved Chit Sang back and I refrained from rolling my eyes. They are way too obvious when they are trying to hide something or fake something. "I think you mean _whom_ I'm shoving." Both grunted as they grabbed each others hands, each trying to shove the other back. The other prisoners were cheering them on as they broke apart. Zuko threw a punch and Chit Sang used his momentum to flip him.

I nudged Sokka. "Call for help to restrain them."

Sokka nodded, pushing forward through the crowd. "I need back up over here!"

Chit Sang moved to jump over Zuko and slam his elbow into him and Zuko spun on his hands and flipped away. He brought his hands up and released a stream of fire at Chit Sang's feet. Two guards shoved through the crowd.

"No firebending. Into the cooler."

The guards charged at Zuko and I saw his body tense as he was tackled to the ground and had his arms pinned behind him. He was pulled to his feet and taken away to the cooler.

The crowd went back to what they had been doing and I grabbed Sokka, pulling him away. "I'm going to follow Zuko and make sure he's put in the right cooler. Get Chit Sang and Suki out of their cells and outside by the end of the hour." Sokka nodded and went to help the other guards put the prisoners back in their cells.

I quickly jogged the way I had seen Zuko taken until I caught up with them. I followed behind Zuko and the guards to make sure he was put in the right cooler. He was and I waited for them to go away before standing guard outside the door. I knocked three times to let him know it was me and he knocked two times back.

I kept watch, listening to Zuko unscrewing the bolts. I looked around for a vent I could use to hide the bolts and found one two cells down. I walked over and made sure no one was looking as I climbed to the ceiling and working on unscrewing it. The hour was almost up when I heard two knocks on the door. Zuko was done. I opened the doors, shivering at the blast of cold. "You get them?"

Zuko looked up and breathed fire from his nose. I recognized it as a way to get warm. He uncurled his body and showed me the pile of bolts in his lap. I grabbed as much as I could before helping him out. I held back a flinch at feeling his skin and the cold metal. I let him sit against the wall and get warm as I took the pile of bolts to the vent. After securing the vent back in place I helped Zuko up. He was still cold but that technique worked well to get him warm. Getting outside would definitely help. "Sokka is getting Suki and Chit Sang out of their cells and meeting us there. Find him. I'm going to get on the wall and work on pulling the cooler out."

Zuko nodded and, shivering, made his way down the hall to find the others. I dispelled most of the clones I had around, leaving around three for back up. I quickly made my way outside and climbed the wall until I was three rows up. I moved until I had found the blind spot and made a clone to help me work the cooler out as quickly and quietly as possible. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get it two thirds of the way out and still keep a grip on it. I heard crunching footsteps and turned my head to see Suki, Chit Sang, and two other prisoners. I groaned but whistled to get their attention. They all looked up at me and I took private joy out of their expressions. I made another clone to work on the cooler while I went down.

As soon as I landed, I marched up to Chit Sang, who was suddenly pale. "What are they doing here? Only so many people can fit in the cooler and the more people, the slower it will go."

Chit Sang waved his hands in front of his face. "They're my girl, and best buddy. I couldn't just leave them."

I stared at him as I thought it over, but relented, knowing I would have done the exact same in his position. "Fine, but no talking." The last part was said to the other two, both of whom nodded.

I looked up at the lightening sky. The days seemed quicker here to me. I wasn't even very tired and I had been up all night. I made my way back to my clones when I heard a whistle, signaling that the cooler was out. I quickly helped them get it on the ground and on its side. I dispelled my clones once I had a firm grip on the cooler and looked at the steep and rough slope in front of me. I sighed, but my attention was caught by Sokka and Zuko finally arriving.

"Need a hand?"

I nodded, adjusting my footing when the cooler started sliding. Sokka and Zuko quickly moved to either side of me and we started making our way down the slope. I glanced at Sokka, noticing his conflicted face. Something must have happened that was making him hesitant to leave. When we got close enough to the shore that the others heard us, Chit Sang and Suki ran to help us with the cooler.

"Took you long enough." Chit Sang grunted. As we got closer to shore, his friends came into sight. The guy had sat down on a rock and his girlfriend was standing and waving, but not making a sound. I guess they took my no talking thing seriously. "This here's my girl and my best buddy. They're coming too."

"Fine." Sooka was definitely frustrated. We stopped the cooler at the edge of the water and I added chakra to my feet to help pull it into the water. I got panicked looks and noises but when they noticed I wasn't screaming or reacting, but standing on the boiling water, they didn't do anything more. "Everybody in the cooler, lets go."

I saw Sokka move away and sit on a rock, staring at the ground. With a glance, Suki, Zuko, and I followed. Zuko spoke. "Are you sure you want to go? You're the one who said you wanted to redeem yourself, redeem your honor. Rescuing your dad is your chance."

They must have heard something about new prisoners. Suki stepped forward. "Your dad?"

Sokka looked up at us. "If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

Zuko and I spoke at the same time. "No, it's not." Zuko glanced at me and gestured for me to continue. I did. "If you had cut off the invasion, hopes of defeating the Fire Nation would have been destroyed all over the world. If an organized fleet, or whatever, couldn't do it, than who could? You got to the Fire Nation _Palace. _You proved that they were not invincible and in any war, in any world, that is something that could change everything." I could feel my anger rising. "Yeah, you failed and yeah, it sucks, but I wouldn't even be here, heck, my world probably wouldn't be here if I decided to ' call it quits before I fail' because I would have given up before I was a ninja and if not then, I would have let Akatsuki capture me like they've wanted to since I was twelve. While failing is a possibility in everything you do, it's what you were _doing_ and what you managed _to do_, that changes everything." I could feel Zuko, Suki, and the others gaping at me but I didn't take my eyes from Sokka's. "Now, what do you want to do?"

The silence was pronounced, only broken by the sound of the boiling lake behind us. Chit sang was the one to break the silence and he flinched when my eyes snapped to him. His friends were already in the cooler. "Sorry to interrupt, but can we get a move on?"

I glanced back at Sokka, who looked at me for a second before answering. "No, I'm staying." I was happy about his choice but I could tell what was coming next. He turned to me and I simply raised an eyebrow. He nodded, turning to Suki and Zuko. "You guys go." He grabbed Suki's shoulders. "You've been here long enough."

Suki smiled and grabbed Sokka's hand. "I'm not leaving without you, Sokka."

Zuko stepped forward. "I'm staying too."

"Not me, I'm out." Chit Sang stated before jumping into the cooler. I yelled after him,

"The currents slow, but bear with it."

I got a wave of his hand in response and huffed, turning to Sokka when he spoke. "We gave up our only chance of escaping. I hope we haven't just made a huge mistake."

"When are the new arrivals supposed to get here?"

"Dawn, on the gondola's."

I nodded, drawing up the mental map I have of the place from my clones' scouting. "I know a place where we can see who gets off and remain hidden. Follow me."

They nodded and I started going to the area on the corner where we could get in to see the gondola's. We had to hug the wall to avoid being seen once we left the blind spot. I kept glancing at the cables, checking to see when the gondola arrived. I had just spotted it in the middle of the line when a loud yell echoed around us, soon followed by bells and yells of the escaped prisoners.

"The plan failed, they're caught!" Sokka exlaimed.

I quickly shoved Sokka in front of me when I was able to see the gondola's landing platform. "Focus on finding your dad."

All of us watched tensely as the gondola came closer. When it stopped Sokka spoke. "If my dad's not there, we've risked everything for nothing."

Suki grabbed his hand. "We had to."

"Come on, come on." Sokka pleaded when a soldier moved to open the door. I immediately dismissed the first guy that came out.

"Is that him?" Zuko didn't. I scowled at him as did Sokka.

"My dad doesn't have a nose ring." I didn't see anyone that even remotely looked like Sokka out of the prisoners that got off. I could see Sokka deflating with each person. "Where is he?" There were no more people after another man got off. "That's it? That can't be it."

"I'm sorry, Sokka." Suki consoled.

Sokka's shoulders dropped. "Oh, no."

All of us looked up when we heard a guard yell for someone to get off the gondola. I could feel myself leaning forward, waiting for the person to get off. One glance at the man – blue eyes, a mix between Sokka and Katara's features, and the wolf tail hair – and I knew it was him.

Sokka slumped in relief, whispering one word. "Dad."

**Sorry for the long wait. I was gonna try and make this into one chapter but I decided to go on and split the Boiling Rock to give you guys something. Also, never saw them play rock, paper, scissors so I just made that up and I'll try and get the second half out soon, but no promisses, Okay? R&R**


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